Joe, I agree now with you....the wood looks great ! All the leaves and fruit should come back....Now the toasted leaves are no good...Once they all grow back, I will harvest for you...or you can send me a few recipes to use them...Do you know a use for the fruit ?

Anyways, I do agree that for the tree's survival...I think it can take 20F without any protection, for the periods we had....which was 6-8 hours each night, and about 5 nights of it.....

well...good news....both the Kieffer Lime and Variegated Pink Lemon have new growth pushing out....I will take some pics as soon as time permits......

Here's update on Thai Lime, and Yuzu graft, the tree came back with a vengence...



Take note of Yuzu fruit and Thai Limes as well.....btw. the Yuzu did not lose any leaves, and weathered the arctic blast just fine...

Looks great EZ. Yuzu can take more cold than most citrus. It is rated to 10 F but I don't know about that. It would also depend on the rootstock.

Now, how about some leaves from the kaffir during the CRFG scionwood exchange?

Joe:
How do you use Kaffir leaves?

I never use them. Because I don't know.

EZ: Your citrus are looking good!

sure...I will bring a few bags of leaves to the exchange in Jan. see you there !!

Benny,

We got dried tropical fruits from a Thai friend and there are dried kaffir leaves mixed in. The friend showed us that you can eat the kaffir leaves, and it indeed it was tasty, aromatic and crunchy too. The Kaffir leaves can be used in tea also. I would try to flavor some of my wines with Kaffir leaves.

You can also use Kaffir leaves like you would use lemon grass. You can add it in paksiw, tinola, sinigang, adobo Filipino dishes.

Joe

Thanks Joe.

Hi,

Im new on the forum. I enjoyed reading your discussions. I'm on the West side of Sac and our trees are exposed to the cold delta winds coming from the West so we are having some issues with freezing temps too. I was going to build a fence in the Spring, but maybe I'll bump up the project and do it now as it looks like it might be a cold winter in NorCal.

My wife is Thai, we have several Kaffir (Makrut) lime trees (and lemon grass, thai chile peppers) in the back yard. The Thai use the lime leaves in several spicy soups such as Tom Yum Goong (distinct hot and sour flavors with shrimp-great for cold winter nights) and spicy salad dishes such as Yum Talay (spicy seafood salad, great with a cold Singha-Thai beer). Every chef has their own versions of these and its fun and easy to play around with the ingredients to suit your tastes and create new dishes.

Welcome rockosrind. You're just a Yolo Bypass away from Davis.

Actually, compared to the more inland Sacramento valley, we are both protected by the Delta Breezes. The Delta Breezes is our friend because it tempers our temperature. During summer, the maritime influence coming from the pacific, courtesy of the delta breezes, makes our air temperature late in the afternoon to be really excellent even the hot summer days. The same principle works well during the winter, but in reverse, it will keep our otherwise low temperature milder to just a little bit below freezing. During the winter, if the Delta Breezes (winds coming from the west) comes in, we won't have freezing temperature.

Now if the winds comes the north, these are no longer the delta breezes that we would have loved. The north winds causes our severe freezing temperature, fresh from Alaska or other areas of the arctic, that is why we have the arctic blasts and indeed we have record breaking freezes most likely if they happen. During the summer, the north winds and the winds from the east will cause our hellish fires and intolerable hot temperatures. These happen when they become strong enough to dominate our delta breezes. Normally we have the good friend delta breezes, but from time to time we are bombarded with the reverse winds from the east, and the devastating winds from the north.

But overall, even if such winds happen, it is still worth growing bananas and citruses. We have better chances here than other people in Northern California, especially the poor souls outside the maritime influence, they don't have a wider diversity of plantings that we can do.

One major drawback of these tempered air is that most of our citruses will never be as good as in Southern California, but some cultivars would still better than those in the cooler Bay Area locations.

Joe, thank you for the info on the winds. I'll put off fence building till the Spring. I read somewhere that a solution for those sub freezing nights to but a string of Christmas lights on the ground under your trees and then put a cover (tarp) over the trees to keep the temps up and air moving underneath. Any thoughts on this method? Our trees got some freezer burn last season and we are looking to avoid that this Winter.

Here is a pic of their location, we have since put one in the ground, but they are not protected with that open fence. I thought I would build a wooden 6ft high fence to protect them from heat loss during the nights. But I guess I could just throw a tarp over the chain link fence, drape it over the trees and run the Christmas lights under them.

The lime trees are the ones in the containers.

Yes, just draping over a tarp during the predicted frosty nights should be enough. You have a slight problem though, the potted plants are more prone to cold than if they were planted inground, except perhaps for the fact thay you can move them indoors when another arctic blast comes around, especially for the Kaffir lime. The At about 28 deg F, a tarp will do for your sensitive ones. Christmas lights would work together with tarp if you needed additional protection, like when it dips down to 26 deg F.