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Posted By: timbercruiser

4 left - 12/29/17 09:36 PM

I think I have 4 Satsuma oranges left on my trees and I'm going to pick them off Sunday. They have been delicious this year. I'm going to buy a couple more from a nursery in South Carolina that is suppose to have some cold tolerant strains of trees.
Posted By: DEADorALIVE

Re: 4 left - 12/30/17 03:03 PM

I just bought and planted 5 citrus trees, including another Satsuma, from a nursery in SC... FastGrowingTrees.com . Shipping was pretty quick, and the trees arrived healthy. They're more expensive than some others, but the trees come potted, rather than bareroot, and their citrus trees don't come from Florida...2 huge selling points for me!
Posted By: DEADorALIVE

Re: 4 left - 12/30/17 04:18 PM

Satsumas and kumquats are the most cold tolerant of the edible citrus family, and once the trees are established and have a few years behind them, they're even hardier than advertised. If any of your trees are still young or recently planted, though, be mindful of the lows over the next week! Cover them to protect from frost and freezing temps. Kumquats are generally good to 15-18 degrees, but I had a young potted kumquat severely bitten a couple weeks back by 29° temps! That tree has been brought inside, it's currently completely defoliated and we're waiting/hoping that it'll bounce back. It still has some green wood, but it doesn't look good, for right now!
Posted By: JayHook

Re: 4 left - 01/02/18 12:38 AM

We picked our last satsumas today. 30 left on 2 trees. About 2 weeks later than normal...usually just before Christmas.
Posted By: DEADorALIVE

Re: 4 left - 01/02/18 02:20 PM

How strange...I'm probably 60 or 70 miles north, as the crow flies, of either of you, and I had picked and eaten all of my satsumas by mid-late November, and a couple then were slightly past prime!
Posted By: timbercruiser

Re: 4 left - 01/02/18 08:37 PM

DOA, did you have any freeze damage last night? Mine look OK, but it might be too early to tell. I think it was about 20 degrees or so.
Posted By: DEADorALIVE

Re: 4 left - 01/03/18 04:30 PM

I'm on the ship, right now, but 'Huntress tells me that so far, she hasn't seen any curled leaves. She has the 6 new trees that I just planted covered, the other, established, trees, are not. If we get through Thursday night without any damage, we should be sitting pretty, for a little while, at least! The lowest I've logged in the orchard over the past few days is 17.9° yesterday morning...but it was apparently only for a few minutes, as within half an hour afterwards, it was close to 19°. I'm very (pleasantly) surprised that it hasn't at least curled a few leaves!
Posted By: Maggie123

Re: 4 left - 01/04/18 06:08 PM

You guys! Yall put a hankering on me and my other half. Just ordered some Satsuma trees from that nursery and look forward to seeing them grow!!
Posted By: DEADorALIVE

Re: 4 left - 01/04/18 08:27 PM

Easy to grow so long as you don't let them freeze, and feed them well in the spring and early summer. Once the trees are established, they'll take up to 4lbs per tree (depending on the size of the tree, of course) of fertilizer to keep them happy. They don't require much in the way of pruning, birds don't mess with them much, and usually only require light upkeep in terms of spraying/pest control. Only downside is that it seems like it takes the fruit FOREVER to ripen, and it won't hurry up any just because you're standing there wanting a delicious fresh orange!
Posted By: timbercruiser

Re: 4 left - 01/04/18 11:28 PM

Maggie, I lost 6 trees to freezing in the past. I planted the ones I have producing now about 4 feet from the south end of my house. The heater and the warmth of the house helps a lot to give those few warm degrees to the trees. A local guy has a small swimming pool and he planted his around the pool, same principal a few warmer degrees. I'm going to try a couple of trees from McKenzie Farms in South Carolina, 834-389-4831. They are suppose to have some Chinese and other strain of colder tolerant Satsumas.
Posted By: Maggie123

Re: 4 left - 01/07/18 09:15 AM

The ones we ordered wer Owari Satsuma Trees and we paid the extra $$ to get larger trees, so hopefully they will be a bit more hardy than small ones.

I like your thinking on the sound end of the house. Our plan was to plant them on the south end of the garage. They will be more protected from wind and cold located there. Looking forward to getting them and seeing what happens.

We actually grew lemon and lime trees before and they produced fruit until we lost them to freezing temps. That was when we were much younger and knew a lot less than we do now about growing things.
Posted By: DEADorALIVE

Re: 4 left - 01/07/18 03:03 PM

When I ordered the 6 new trees I just planted, they only had the smaller size of one of the Cara Cara navels I ordered, so I applied the money saved from that downsizing to upsizing the Owari...it came as a solid 5' tree, and is now the largest of the Satsumas I have.

3 days this week with sub 20° temps, and my youngest tells me he still doesn't see any damage on any of the citrus trees!


Edit: ordered 5 new trees, also had 1 young tree rooted from a cutting that I added at the same time.
Posted By: DEADorALIVE

Re: 4 left - 01/08/18 11:53 PM

I mentioned above that I was adamant that my citrus trees don't come from Florida. I'd posted this in another thread, but figured I'd bring it here, too...

Originally Posted By: DEADorALIVE
Huanglongbing, or "HLB", or, in the US, The Greening, is a bacterial disease that renders citrus trees incapable of uptaking moisture or nutrients, even when they're readily available in the soil. The disease is vectored by the Asian Psyllid, and there's no cure for it. An infected tree is generally dead within 1-3 years. The fruit it produces during that time is edible and harmless to humans, though it may be dry and unattractive. Once a grove has been infected to the point that its' commercial viability is compromised, grove owners, especially in the Central Florida region, have found it more profitable to sell the land to developers, rather than invest 7 years waiting for new trees to come to maturity, especially when those new trees are no less likely to be infected than the originals. While there are still some groves farther down, in Southern Florida, the Florida Citrus Industry, for all intents and purposes, has ceased to exist. If you've followed our discussion in the garden forum about Satsumas, this is why I've been so adamant when adding citrus trees to my orchard that they NOT come from Florida.

Little known is the fact that the juice plants in the area have been buying fruit from the Dominican Republic to augment failing crops for a number of years, now. If you're from Central Florida, or have spent much time there, you've seen trucks and equipment belonging to a grove management company called "Roper Bros". My cousin, and his father before him, have run that company for the Ropers since the very early 70's. Roper Bros has shuttered, as of last year.

I have pics on my phone from last year, when we were at our fish camp down there, of trees and groves that look like they've been dead for 50 years...three years ago it was a thriving commercial grove!
Posted By: DEADorALIVE

Re: 4 left - 01/14/18 05:44 AM

Originally Posted By: DEADorALIVE
I'm very (pleasantly) surprised that it hasn't at least curled a few leaves!

...starting to hear about some curled and turning leaves, now...might be bad! I'll know more after this coming Thursday.
Posted By: DEADorALIVE

Re: 4 left - 01/17/18 02:52 AM

Well...I've seen pics, now, and it's pretty bad. All of the new trees, which were all covered, have suffered pretty severe damage. Time will tell if they're going to survive or not.

Interestingly, the trees that were there and established, some of which were considerably smaller than the newer trees, were all uncovered and suffered none to very minor damage! I had left some fruit on the kumquats, because it was just too green to pick it with the bulk of the rest, and it's going to be a loss, but that's only a dozen or so fruits. A few leaves were curled, but that's pretty much it.
Posted By: timbercruiser

Re: 4 left - 01/28/18 06:27 PM

My trees seem to have made it thru the freeze OK, very few curled or yellow leaves. I talked to the McKenzie's in South Carolina the other day and they don't know what the final damage is going to be of their orchards. They hit 7 degrees a couple of nights in South Carolina, I don't know what kind of protection their orchards had. They said a lot of people have good luck putting their Satsumas in large pots with wheels so they can either be brought inside a carport or on the porch on the worst of winter nights. I wonder what kind of protection you would get if you misted the trees and let them have a covering of ice.
I have got to get some fertilizer, won't be long before they will need a dose.
Posted By: Maggie123

Re: 4 left - 01/28/18 07:07 PM

Glad they made it alright. We still have the two we purchased in pots in the house. Not going to plant until a bit later. They seem happy and healthy inside.
Posted By: DEADorALIVE

Re: 4 left - 01/29/18 11:11 PM

All six of the new trees I had in the ground are completely denuded, and I've pruned off the obviously dead wood. Still a lot of green in the trunks, so I'll just have to wait and see if they'll come back or not. The potted kumquat that had been frostbitten and denuded from an earlier freeze survived...it's leafing back out very nicely. I moved it indoors for the rest of the winter and gave it a massive dose of fertilizer to help it bounce back. Assuming the trees outside do survive, I won't be able to feed them anything until after last frost.

Forecast for light freezes tonight and tomorrow night, then we're good for at least the next 8 nights.
Posted By: DEADorALIVE

Re: 4 left - 02/07/18 02:09 AM

So I added a new tree to the orchard today...a Fuyu Persimmon. Never eaten one, so I'll wait to get some fruit off of this one before I decide whether or not to add any more...I've got room for 3 more trees over by the apples.

Still waiting on the verdict on my citrus trees...but I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose at least one; one of the Cara Cara oranges was a very young plant, only about 18" tall or so. Right now, it, along with all the other freeze-damaged trees, still has a good bit of green wood (though no leaves), but I don't expect to know anything about any of them for at least another month... frown
Posted By: countryjwh

Re: 4 left - 02/07/18 02:30 AM

Originally Posted by DEADorALIVE
So I added a new tree to the orchard today...a Fuyu Persimmon. Never eaten one, so I'll wait to get some fruit off of this one before I decide whether or not to add any more...I've got room for 3 more trees over by the apples.

Still waiting on the verdict on my citrus trees...but I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose at least one; one of the Cara Cara oranges was a very young plant, only about 18" tall or so. Right now, it, along with all the other freeze-damaged trees, still has a good bit of green wood (though no leaves), but I don't expect to know anything about any of them for at least another month... frown


Fuji persimmon right? Heck I may be pronouncing them wrong. They are delicious. I mean by far my favorite out of the persimmons and also most other fruit. They are a hard fruit and I just peel and eat. Can pretty much eat just like an apple.
Posted By: DEADorALIVE

Re: 4 left - 02/07/18 03:07 AM

Nope...it's Fuyu. (I know... smile ) Fuji is an apple...

I've heard good things about them, just never had one, before.
Posted By: countryjwh

Re: 4 left - 02/07/18 03:38 AM

Yep. That’s right called my dad since that what he’s called it but he said it’s the way you spell it. Just come natural for Fuji he said. His tree has been loaded the past few years.
Posted By: NotsoBright

Re: 4 left - 02/21/18 12:21 AM

Planted A Japanese Persimmon tree a few years back and it has done very well. Lots of volunteers all around it now from a few inches to three feet.
It’s in lower AL if anyone wants any of the volunteers they should dig up easy
Posted By: DEADorALIVE

Re: 4 left - 03/03/18 02:57 AM

Okay, home now, and got a good look at my citrus trees. I had a new very small kumquat that I'd just put in, it's lost...dead wood all the way to the mulch line, and no new growth. The satsumas and kumquats that were already established suffered minimal to no damage, and will all be fine. The new satsuma, blood oranges, and cara cara oranges were all severely damaged, lot of wood lost, but all are showing signs of new growth and should recover. I have several apples and a couple plums leafed out and blooming, everything else is just starting to split the buds, including the fuyu persimmon I just put in. No split buds on any pecans I've looked at, yet, so there's still another frost coming, hopefully it'll be light enough that it doesn't cause petal drop or fruit drop, but we'll see.
Posted By: timbercruiser

Re: 4 left - 03/03/18 03:41 AM

DOA were you able to protect the trees this year or were they just out in the open? Mine are against the house and I had no damage to my satsumas, they are full of buds fixing to open. I hope my bee man has some bees in the pasture next week. I'm going to order a couple of more trees next week.
Posted By: DEADorALIVE

Re: 4 left - 03/03/18 11:35 AM

They're not close to anything. The new trees were covered, but 16° is 16°! The established trees were not covered.

If I'd been home I could've maybe saved them the damage by building bonfires up in the orchard...the lowest temps were fairly brief, maybe 3 hours total over that week, and radiant heat from 2 or 3 bonfires would probably have significantly reduced the impact of the freeze on the trees. But I was at 400 miles away, at work, and 'Huntress was 600 miles away...so all we could do was cover them and hope for the best.

Citrus are tropical plants, so I knew adding them to the orchard was a gamble, and I'm not terribly upset...they are, after all, going to survive, with the exception of the small kumquat. That one I rooted from a cutting, so I'll just take some more cuttings and start over with it.
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