Hi everyone,
I was wondering what you all use for protecting your outdoor potted citrus from frost.

I don't have the space indoors, and I'm in the Bay Area where it's fairly mild most of the year. But we do get some winter frosts... and the last few days we've had night temps of 35ish.

I've temporarily covered my new citrus with sheets but I realized I'll need some long term solutions at some point.

Are there affordable pop up greenhouses?
What's better... a clear plastic nailed to a frame or the dark canvas tents I've seen at the nursery?

Is it sufficient to build a small cage/frame around the fruit and then install either 6 mil plastic, or frost netting, or just old sheets, around the fruit?

I'm thinking with the 6 mil plastic I might actually be able to make a sort of makeshift greenhouse where they could stay there during really cold winter days.

What do you all use?

I thought you were going to avoid plastics!

Well, you can for this purpose. I use sheets and burlap and some spun polyester frost blankets. Additional protection can come from Christmas lights and water buckets that provide some heat.

LOL Skeeter. Not all plastic is evil, I suppose.

So do you construct some sort of frame over the plants, or just drape the sheets and burlap directly over them?

Thanks for your help, by the way!

I use clothes pins to clip the sheets on the tree. My Lisbon lemon survived a low around 22F that was below freezing for over 18 hrs. Christmas lights and a kiddy pool of water under the tree kept the tree at or above the freezing mark.

Actually, I find sheets and burlap to be far more effective in protecting plants from freezing and I believe the reason is they trap more of the infrared radiation coming up from the ground.

Its very ugly, but I combine plastic and blankets and that works very well

Frank