Yep, we've got several places nearby w/ excellent clams. My favorite for fried clams is JT Farnham's (and they have outdoor seating right on the edge of the tidal estuary) but Woodman's, the Clam Box, or almost any other clam shack in Essex MA are also excellent.
Fried clams, a couple lemons, and a cold beer = yum! (I knew I could tie this back into citrus somehow lol)

-Scott

My aunt had a summer home in Harpswell ME. We used to dig them at low tide & steam them all night. Melted butter & lemon.

We do have little neck clams here, but it is much easier to buy them at Costco. Here we have pluff mud instead of sand where they live. Pluff mud is the nastiest stuff you would ever want to dig through to collect clams. I have done it many times, and it is just nasty!

Here's an update on my St. Ann satsuma after December.

Observations and notes in no particular order:

-The coldest outside temp was 21 deg F
-Without any additional heat, the coldest temperature the satsuma saw was 31.5 deg F for ~ 3h.
-There is no observable cold damage to the tree.
-The coldest daily average temp inside was 35 deg (the warmest was 48 deg F)
-There is no major difference between the daily low temps at ground level (approx. 6 in. above soil level) and in the tree canopy (approx. 6 in below the glass roof).
-The lowest soil temp (~4-6" depth) inside was 41 deg. The current Jan 2. soil temp for Boston at 4" depth is 30 deg.
-So far, based on the results of Frank_zone5.5 (link) I believe there is a good chance to make it all the way through winter with little/no damage to the tree without supplemental heating)
-As insurance I have added an aquarium heater to one of the water barrels inside the enclosure (à la Frank). The heater was on for testing Dec. 30 and 31. With the heater, which had not yet fully warmed up the water barrel, the low temps were 38 and 37 deg on the 30th and 31st, respectively. Without the extra heating, the the internal temp probably would have dropped to 30-32 deg. F.
-Based on ivica's tests over the past couple years, I'm thinking about only having the heater turn on when the air temp inside drops to somewhere between 25 and 27 deg F (-3 to -4 C), which I am hoping will occur rarely, if at all.

View of entire enclosure taken Jan. 2.


Temp. data graphs for Dec. 2012:

Your satsuma should have no problems with those temps as long as you keep the tree dormant. My satsumas have taken 17F one winter with no damage at all, but they were all dormant. Where you can run into trouble, is if you let the temps inside the structure get warm enough to break dormancy. If that happens & sap begins to flow and you get a quick freeze the branches can split open. Also if the temps get warm enough, the trees will start to flush & bloom... Any freezing temps will destroy your new growth & blooms.

I think the heater should be better on at 0° C already.

Temps changing at freezing point make big troubles to the plant.

It is like steady freeze-melt-freeze ...

Looks like I'm going to have to go to Costco to get my clams.

awesume post

wow u got to 22 last night? I went to 2f lol

also if u covered with a tarp that would help a lot (as oppose to heating)

The low temp for Dec outside at my house was 21-22F. This AM it got down to 7F in my yard (4-5 deg colder than forecast). The satsuma went down to 33.0F with the aquarium heater off (the water in the barrel w/ the heater was still around 40 deg yesterday evening, though).

-Scott

Any updates with the cold

I'll post a full update at the end of the month. It got down to 3.4F Thurs. morning (several deg lower than forecast). Inside the citrus enclosure at the same time it was 29.9F with no supplemental heating. The overall low inside so far was 27.6F. There doesn't seem to be any damage to the satsuma so far, but I won't be able to tell for sure until it warms up.

so cool to see this. Good luck!

Boca Joe

Very interesting thread. I could only find white plastic barrels so I have been trying to paint the white ones black. It has not been very successful. I used the best primer and paint from the best paint store for house paint in town. The primer was supposed to stick to glass if you wanted to paint glass. Everything looked good for a while but now the black paint is peeling of in large pieces. There is white primer on the back of the pieces that peel off.

I then went to an auto parts store that specializes in auto paint. The specialist there has experience with NASCAR . I am convinced she knows her stuff. We are now treating the barrels like a plastic bumper on a car. I am going to run a test. One place with her special paint only, one place with her special primer and paint, and one place sanded with 320 sand paper plus her primer and her paint. I have 12 bad paint barrels. I will probably buy new white barrels cheaper than sanding all the other ones . I can't find black barrels. Buying already black barrels would be much easier. I will post results later.
Tom

Are you planning on using the barrels for thermal heat storage inside a greenhouse? Mine are also translucent/white. I am using them as walls for my enclosure, they let a good amount of light through to my citrus tree.

Here's some info on solar reflectance of different colors from the roofing industry that may be helpful:

http://armorroofingspringfield.com/metal-roof-colors.html

Black reflects 5% of the incident light (and absorbs 95%)
White should absorb ~45%.
Depending on what your goals are, you may not need to paint the barrels
You could possibly compensate, for example, by using 7 or 8 white barrels instead of 4 or 5 black ones.

Also, although I haven't tried this, rubberized black roof coating might be a good option for painting the barrels:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_70989-29-6080-9-30_0__?productId=3043257&Ntt=Rubber%2Broof%2Bcoatings&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNtt%3DRubber%252Broof%252Bcoatings&facetInfo=

-Scott

Thanks Boca Joe,

I'm anxious to see what shape my tree will be in come spring!

If you haven't seen it yet, you should check out this thread:
link
Frank_zone5.5 has been doing something similar with water barrels and aquarium heaters for several years.