CITRUS DIED IN THE FREEZE NOW A NEW PLAN

 So...after the great freeze of 2021, we lost the citrus.  There was nothing we could do to save them in this type of cold (single digits) short of moving them inside or onto the porch with some lights nearby.

But of course they were in the ground.

Here was the orange tree.  Brown and brittle all the way down to below ground level.

Lemon tree.  It was not coming back either.

Lime tree, also not coming back.

We waited to see if there was any growth coming but this weekend, I did the scratch test at the base and it was brown and brittle on all three.  There was zero growth coming in.  In  fact, the lime tree just fell over at the base on its own.  They've all been removed.

So that got us to thinking.  The whole point of putting the citrus in now is just like that of the other fruit trees that we have planted; we've done it so that by the time we're living out there, we'll have producing fruit trees to enjoy without waiting years.  The other trees are doing great and are on track to be large and producing.  But hey, we'd also really love to have fresh lemons and limes and even some snacking oranges but until we're there, how do we let the trees grow but be able to care for them in these freezes?  Ideally, MOVING them inside the house or barn or even onto the porch for a night or two with freezing temps would be best.  As one of you suggested, an "orangery" would be an option too as would a greenhouse large enough to move them into when cold weather threatens.  Already doing some research on those. 

Image courtesy of wikicommons

How do we move them if they are in the raised beds?  We don't.  But what if they are in large containers?  Well that could be a game changer.

Heck, there have been many times when we've been in the garden centers and saw citrus trees that hadn't been sold but are covered in fruit, still living in their little 5 gallon black plastic containers.  If we put them in large clay pots (we don't like plastic), we could move them around to protect them and then, in a few years, we could still put them in the ground when we're there to protect them at 2am if necessary.

Of course, if they were producing well in containers we could also just leave them in there.

Now we're looking for the right sized citrus trees at the right price and we'll go ahead and get them (lemon, lime, orange) and just leave them in their garden center containers while we figure out the best larger pots.

A plus for us would be that this will open the three former citrus beds to plantings of other fruit trees or bushes (win/win/win!).  We have almost exhausted our list of fruit varieties that will grow here but there are still a few.  We know we can grow asparagus and herbs and such but we'd like to keep this area behind the house as the fruit/sweet plantings and then use the extra raised beds in the big garden for more veggies, herbs or perennial vegetables such as asparagus.

We've got some ideas and we're working on that part of it now...in fact we have already bought one new tree, stay tuned.