Winter weather...

I just saw that on the radar, and looked outside, but I don't see any precipitation at all. Temp outside is 37.2 so it seems like it might be a bit warm to see actual snowflakes. At least I hope so. Sure don't want to see that stuff around here.

It sleeted/snowed/frozen rain(choose one)here but it was melting by the time it landed on my work truck.

I checked outside right before I went to bed last night, a bit after 4am, and it was raining, but I didn't see any snow or sleet in the flashlight beam.

It's still only 42 degrees outside right now, and not expected to get much higher, so I doubt I'll be going outside much today. Low tonight is forecast to be around 26 degrees, so we'll have to go out to cover some of the more sensitive plants. We're letting the larger citrus fend for themselves this year because they are getting difficult to cover, and we want to see how they fare.

Are your citrus's hybrids? The reason I ask is because I had a hybrid Orange tree that was good down to 28* but I didn't cover it one night and it went down to 24*. It didn't kill the tree but it killed the weaker of the hybrid parents and the Oranges it produced after that were all small and sour. :thumbsdown:

Not as far as I know. Now a bunch of them are grafted onto other rootstock, which I thought was to increase cold hardiness as well as to dwarf the trees somewhat. We also have a bunch of them growing here and there from seeds we would spit out while eating the fruit when taking walks around the property, and they seem to be doing quite well. Some are even producing their own fruit now.

Connie has been head-starting a bunch of tangerines and lemons from seed, and then once they get a little bit of size on them, she would plant them out in the woods. Seems a lot of them are still doing well, but apparently their leaves are delicacies to herbivore mammals and insects.

One of the rootstock plants took over when a bloodorange graft died and it has some of the nastiest thorns on it I've ever seen on a plant. It's been producing fruit (which smell very sweet, but extremely bitter to the taste) and I've been spreading those seeds along the edge of the dirt road transecting our property. They seem to sprout readily, but again, herbivores seem to love eating them before they can get thorny.

Here's a pic I found online of this rootstock. I just know it by it's species name of "trifoliata", but I understand it is called "Flying Dragon" as a common name.

I believe that mine was a Bloodorange. And I recall the long thorns also. I finally pulled it up and gave up on citrus. My property was all cleared though and had no naturally occurring shelter so I didn't see the point in doing that again. I prefer maintenance free landscaping.

85vette said:

I believe that mine was a Bloodorange. And I recall the long thorns also. I finally pulled it up and gave up on citrus. My property was all cleared though and had no naturally occurring shelter so I didn't see the point in doing that again. I prefer maintenance free landscaping.

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Try working with the satsumas. They appear to be very cold hardy and the fruit is real tasty. If you are going to be at your place for a while, come by next year and I'll give you some changshi tangerines that grow true from seed and appear to be very cold hardy as well. It does take them a LONG time to reach maturity though, so if you aren't going to be at your place for at least 6 or so years, no sense planting them.

The bloodorange we had gave up the ghost at the first real cold snap, so I don't think they are especially cold hardy. All that is left of it is the root stock, which is what those thorns are on. I didn't much care for the taste of the fruit anyway, so no big loss as far as I am concerned.

Interestingly enough, the changshi coming from seed seem to develop some modest thorns too, but the original one we have that is grafted doesn't have thorns.

Every tree in my hood has died years ago from greening sickness.

I am hoping that our citrus is isolated enough that it won't spread here.

Man, I know my thermometers were all saying it was 60 degrees outside today, but it sure as heck didn't FEEL like it. Connie said the same thing. It felt more like 40 degrees. The cold air just felt painful on our bare skin.

I'm thinking I might want to buy a couple of more vehicles to try to contribute more CO2 to the atmosphere and get that global warming stuff here a bit more quickly. What exactly is supposed to be the downside to warmer weather anyway? People up north just don't like it? :shrug01:

Sweat! The downside is sweat! I love working outside this time of year because I'm not soaked in sweat and it's not running in my eyes with gnats or mosquitos bothering me. I can always put more clothes on if I get cold but there are only so many you can take off when it gets hot.

Heck I might go through 3 or even 4 changes of clothes during the summer when I am working outside, but I really don't mind that. It's my chance to lose some weight. Much better than paying to work out in a gym. Plus I can always jump into the pool to cool off.

Now mosquitoes, yeah, not real fond of them, and they will keep me inside if they are too thick. But we have them here even in the Winter months, so it's really just the luck of the draw as to when we will get those horrendous blooms of them. And oh yeah, let's not forget yellow flies. THOSE little monsters will keep us barricaded in the house when they are roaming free looking for blood. You can ignore a mosquito bite, but them? No way. Those suckers HURT.

But cold temperatures in general? Got no use for it. It belongs in the refrigerator, freezer, and air conditioner, and nowhere else in my life.

Now moderate temperatures, like in the mid 60s to mid 70s, yeah, that's perfect weather for me to be working outside. Like today, for instance. Was outside clearing out some small trees and just broke into a light sweat and moderate blisters on my hands.

This years El Nino was a total dud like i said it would be last summer.

I had more rain last Dec thru Feb than this year.