Video Transcript:
Hey guys, welcome to another episode of plant fanatics today. I want to talk to you guys about growing citrus trees in Northern planning zones. So stay tuned Right now. It's January 11th here in zone seven. So we're right in the height of winter. It's a little too cold to grow citrus trees in the ground outside all year long. So how I grow all of my citrus trees, uh, is just in pots. Um, you can see all the citrus trees right here, and we just built this greenhouse. And what's awesome is I just put my first citrus tree in the ground in this greenhouse. And it's right here. It's a Karicare and navel orange. It's on a dwarf fruit stock. So I'm still going to have to keep it pruned because the roof of this greenhouse is about eight feet tall. So it's not gonna be able to get any taller than eight feet. Um, but that is all that I have planted in the ground, as well as this, uh, coffee tree, which, uh, it underwent a little bit of shock, but now it's doing better. It's been out here for maybe, uh, maybe about a month and a half now, but anyway, I wanted to talk to you guys specifically about some problems that I've been having, putting my citrus trees in the greenhouse for the first time. Um, and I actually got to do a little bit of an experiment. I didn't do it on purpose. I wanted to have a citrus tree in the ground in the greenhouse all year long. Um, it is a temperature controlled greenhouse, so that's good, but still I'm dealing with extreme highs in the day. And by that, I mean, I keep it at about 75 degrees in the daytime when the sun's out, even in the wintertime and at night I've been letting it go down into the forties. So it's a pretty big temperature fluctuation. And what I've noticed is with these potted trees, they're having a really hard time with those temperature fluctuations. And I thought it was just with the top growth that it was having problems. Well, because I put this Cara, Cara navel orange right here in the ground, it didn't lose any of its leaves. And so I started thinking and I was like, wow, the temperatures that are affecting these trees and making them drop their leaves is actually coming from the roots, not the top of the tree. So those, because I have this tree in the ground and I'm keeping those, those roots at constant temperature, um, this tree is not the fully eating it. And it's actually putting out new growth. If you put, if you look closely here, I don't know if you guys can see that, but it's actually putting out new leaves. It's about to flower it's, it's doing exactly how I would want it to do. The foliage is looking nice. It was actually having more nutrient issues when I had it in a pot than it is when I put it in the ground. Now it's like, it's free. It's wanting to go. But these trees are still losing their leaves even now after a month and a half in the greenhouse. And I now know it's because of the roots. So what I wanted to tell you, guys that are growing your citrus trees in the North, keeping your roots a nice temperature. It doesn't have to be, you know, super warm. It doesn't have to be 60 degrees all the time because these trees actually didn't defoliate for the most part, keeping them in a dark garage all winter long, but because of these temperature fluctuations on these roots, it's making them drop their leaves. So my advice to you guys, growing citrus trees in containers in the North is try to keep those roots protected even more than the top of the tree. The top of the tree can take pretty good temperature fluctuations as shown by this tree here. If you keep those roots, a consistent temperature or close to it, or keep those fluctuations, you know, from being 30 degree fluctuations in the day and nighttime, your tree is going to do awesome, especially if you have grow lights or something. But so that's probably the biggest takeaway that I've had in growing citrus trees in the Northern planting zones is that you have got to protect those roots. And I'm not too sure about how you go about doing that. I've heard from somebody in one of the comments saying that you could put them on, you know, just put some cardboard under them or put them on a pallet, just lift them up off the cold concrete to try to keep the root temperatures more consistent. Um, that sounded like a really good idea. This transcript was exported on Feb 13, 2021 - view latest version here. Tips For Growing Citrus Trees In Cold Climates (Completed 02/13/21) Transcript by Rev.com Page 2 of 2 I think that you could, you could wrap the pots maybe in bubble wrap to, to just, you know, maybe add some warmth to them. Um, but that's probably the most important thing that you guys can do throughout the winter. The tops of citrus trees can take it pretty cold below freezing. Um, and especially certain trees. Like I have this kumquat right here, it's a Maywell kumquat and you can see it's even handling the temperature fluctuations even in the root system, better than some of these other lemon trees over here. We've got the, this is a Ponderosa lemon. Uh, it's been one that's especially been defoliating. Um, right here, we have a very, uh, gated Eureka lemon tree. Um, it's been defoliating as well though. It has held up better than some of the others. And then over here, this tree is there. The leaves have been yellowing. It's not a nutrient issue. It's only happened as soon as I moved them into the screen house. And it started having those temperature fluctuations, but it's been to fully eating as well. So I it's just those temperature fluctuations going from a super high daytime temperature, you know, a nice 75 degrees and going down into the low forties at night, like I would say 43 to 44 when we get really cold here at night. Um, the reason that I don't keep it warmer in here is because I'm using a propane, which I have another video on how I set that up and everything. But using that propane heater and a greenhouse not being super well-insulated, um, I would have to say a greenhouse is probably the least efficient energy efficient thing on the planet. I know that there's, you know, geothermal greenhouses and stuff like that. Um, I don't have the luxury of having that on this property. Um, so the people that do have those greenhouses know that that greenhouse has, can become a lot more energy efficient. Um, but as far as your typical greenhouse like this, it's not very energy efficient. You're going to be dealing with high daytime temperatures, low nighttime temperatures. Um, otherwise you're looking at spending so much money in, in propane costs or natural gas costs to keep it a constant 60 degrees in here, which I am going to end up doing. I am going to keep it at 60 degrees at some point, just not right now. I'm really starting to get a feel for how these greenhouses are working. But I can say that if you're in the Northern planting zone, you should have no problem taking your citrus trees into the garage and I'm surviving winter. If you can keep it above freezing in your garage, that's perfectly fine. And I know that if you go even further North than here, like zone seven, um, it gets cold, but it's not getting, you know, into the negatives. Um, if you get into the negatives, you may have to have a space heater in your garage, but still, if you can just keep it above 32 degrees, you should have no problem keeping your trees in a garage. I used to always keep these in the garage, no lights, especially this one over here. That's my seed grown lemon tree. You can see that it's having a hard time with these temperature fluctuations as well. It's been dropping its leaves, but that tree I have just shoved in the garage in the dark for years and years, and it's never had had an issue. So it's very easy to grow a citrus tree in the Northern planting zones. If you want to do it, don't be afraid of trying to do it there. They're pretty cold Hardy. Um, as long as you're not getting too far below freezing, um, now they're not going to be actively growing during the winter time. However, when you bring them out in the spring, those temperatures start getting warmer. They're immediately going to put out flowers and new and flush new growth on them. Um, so that is my best advice to you guys is protect those roots. Try to keep those roots as warm as possible. And then for the top of the trees, just try to keep it above freezing and you should have no problem growing citrus trees in Northern planting zones. Thanks so much for watching the video guys, if you liked it, please subscribe to the channel and give this video a like, and if you have any advice for other people that are trying to grow their trees in Northern planting zones, leave a comment in the comment section so everybody can see it. And thanks so much for watching the video guys.