Post-Freeze Citrus and Plant Notes

I just uncovered mine today. They look ROUGH. Meyer Lemon and a Brown's Satsuma. We covered them and had brood lamps under each of them. I'm hoping the satsuma died so that I can replace it but I'll be a little upset about the lemon. This is the second year that satsuma has born fruit that never gets sweet.

Uncover mine. Pluott, Meyers lemon, brown select satsuma, owari satsuma, golden nugget mandarin, Georgia bell peach.
Hope they made it.

Mine are now uncovered. Pretty sure they all lived. Old (age) browns, Owari (had it a couple of years) and an Arctic frost (1 year old). 2 year old Meyer Lemon.

The big browns satsuma lived. I covered it with a huge tarp. but it didn't reach the ground on all sides. Piled up some stuff to limit air flow and put a portable electric heater in there with it.

I know the ends of a lot of the branches have dead leaves because the tarp was pushing down on them and so they got pretty darn cold. Last years hard freeze (16F) if I remember right killed a lot of the branch tips and ruined this past season ability to fruit. Got just a little from the part of the tree that was closest to the house.

Covered it better this year but it also got significantly colder (7F).

The Owari Satsuma I was able to completely cover with a tarp and put a small heater in there. I think it did well. Fingers crossed as the leave look like they are hanging down, but they look normal and not all dark and shriveled. Again, fingers crossed.

The artic frost satsuma I coved with a garbage can and had a small 40 watt incandescent light bulb on whenever the temps were below freezing. Damage unknown. Fingers crossed Totally not sure yet. It is the most cold hardy variety but it is very young.

The meyer lemon I covered with the recycle bin and put a small incandescent light in there as well. I think it lived but I think (not sure) some of it died just like last year. No light last year.

If anyone has pictures they would like to share showing dead leaves from cold or dead branches from cold. That would be super.

I did not cover as they’ve always done fine over 20 years but the satsuma that was here when I bought the place looks toast. Never seen it like this, heavy damage. Bummer

kumquat did fine

So 2 of my 3 Sweet Orange trees completely defoliated while the 3rd one is still hanging on to droopy leaves. All 3 were wrapped and covered during snow including the ground around the trees which which was staked down

Based on what I’ve read, defoliated trees are probably preferable at this point ?

I saved my Ponderosa lemon by covering it with blankets over stakes and putting a heat lamp near the trunk. It looks great. The Meyer lemon and sweet orange look bad because I didn’t protect them.??

Updates? My youngest and oldest will live. Not so sure about my middle one. Looks like every leaf on it will fall of prematurely. Very small meyer lemon will survive but more than half of it looks dead.

Covered all as best I could and had heat sources for each. I suspect the heater on my middle one wasn't working one night. boohoo.

quote:

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Florida king peach,

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I love my peach trees, I have a florida king and rio grande. I put up 5 or gallon bags of peach slices last summer, still using them with my breakfasts. I'm tempted to dig up my citrus and plant all peach trees. Tired of worrying about freezes.

My 3 sweet oranges that I covered lost all leaves .

They all 3 still look like shite but now have green growth coming out of the trunks above the graft lines . It got down to 4 degrees in Lafayette so I wasn’t too optimistic but looks like they made it

Edit: I’m not expecting any fruit this year but with new growth , trees should have survived right?