Thank you so much! My trifoliate has already survived -10 degrees F during the polar vortex. It just laughs at the cold. USDA has recently changed my hardiness zone from 6A to 6B, 7A (-5 to O). Yeah, I’ve got a bridge to sell to them in Brooklyn! 🤣 Enjoy your trees and appreciate the tip!
Nice project :) I have citrumelo 5star and citsuma in pot. Im waiting for my in ground tirfoliate to finally bear fruit for me so i can sprout the seeds for future grafting. I have no much luck with citruses but hope it will change soon.
I wish you more luck with them! Those are some cool varieties, my citrangequat is in a pot, and I was tempted to purchase a Prague Chimera from Stan McKenzie but I'll save it for a future date. I've definitely had much better luck with trifoliates and trifoliate hybrids than traditional citrus.
How does grafting higher up increase cold hardiness? Simply because colder air settles lower to the ground? If that's the reason, does it really make that much of a difference in temperature difference when its windy and the air is getting all stirred up?
That is one half of the theory, the other half is that it leaves more of the rootstock exposed to signal Winter dormancy. It seems like it might not make a huge difference when you factor in wind, but unless branches are very close to the soil and receive warmth from the earth, it seems that lower ones are indeed damaged more by freezes. I believed it once I saw evidence from a forum member in Pennsylvania where a late freeze damaged new growth towards the bottom of his Citranges but not the top.
Were the trifoliate scions that you grafted just a normal trifoliate or were they the so called trifoliate Satsumas from the Prague or Leningrad chimeras?
They were standard trifoliate - this particular strain had pretty decent fruit compared to others. We don't have Prague grafted yet but plan on it eventually!
I have a standard trifoliate growing in ground in zone 6. I’ve gotten 2 small seedless fruits. Love to get those chimeras to grow and graft. It gets down to -10 degrees F here. Saw a vlog that had the best use for trifoliate fruit. The fuzz was scrubbed off. The fruit was juiced into a jar. The rind was cut into pieces and added to the juice. A couple of tablespoons of canning salt was added. After a couple weeks, the salted hardy orange cured into a condiment. It was added into broth, soup and stew for flavoring. I have done a version of this with lemons for years. Traditional Middle Eastern flavoring. Usually put salted lemon into roasting chicken. Fantastic! Good luck to you!
@@kathleenebsen2659 Thank you! Very interesting use for the fruit, it's great to have some form of organic citrus in zone 6. I believe Prague should be hardy to zone 7 but I haven't heard about zone 6 yet. I do know that someone in your zone in Pennsylvania has managed to grow F2 C-35 citrange hybrids (ruby orange x trifoliate orange) that survived to -11°F. The fruit have more juice and a better taste apparently - their experiments can be found on the Cold Hardy Citrus Tropical Fruit Forum.
Fantastic job grafting and grafting them high 👏
Thanks G! Learning from the best!
Thank you so much! My trifoliate has already survived -10 degrees F during the polar vortex. It just laughs at the cold. USDA has recently changed my hardiness zone from 6A to 6B, 7A (-5 to O). Yeah, I’ve got a bridge to sell to them in Brooklyn! 🤣 Enjoy your trees and appreciate the tip!
I'm planting these out this year in zone 6 and we haven't had any below zero temps in a couple years here.
That's great! I wish you luck with them, if a bad winter ever comes around, you can always protect them then.
@@themulberries thank you
Oh yeaa z7a citrus experimenting, I'm here for this. Earned you a new sub :)
Thank you! Lots more zone 7 citrus experimenting coming up!!
Nice project :) I have citrumelo 5star and citsuma in pot. Im waiting for my in ground tirfoliate to finally bear fruit for me so i can sprout the seeds for future grafting. I have no much luck with citruses but hope it will change soon.
I wish you more luck with them! Those are some cool varieties, my citrangequat is in a pot, and I was tempted to purchase a Prague Chimera from Stan McKenzie but I'll save it for a future date.
I've definitely had much better luck with trifoliates and trifoliate hybrids than traditional citrus.
How does grafting higher up increase cold hardiness? Simply because colder air settles lower to the ground? If that's the reason, does it really make that much of a difference in temperature difference when its windy and the air is getting all stirred up?
That is one half of the theory, the other half is that it leaves more of the rootstock exposed to signal Winter dormancy.
It seems like it might not make a huge difference when you factor in wind, but unless branches are very close to the soil and receive warmth from the earth, it seems that lower ones are indeed damaged more by freezes.
I believed it once I saw evidence from a forum member in Pennsylvania where a late freeze damaged new growth towards the bottom of his Citranges but not the top.
That makes sense! Good luck this winter!@@themulberries
Were the trifoliate scions that you grafted just a normal trifoliate or were they the so called trifoliate Satsumas from the Prague or Leningrad chimeras?
They were standard trifoliate - this particular strain had pretty decent fruit compared to others. We don't have Prague grafted yet but plan on it eventually!
I have a standard trifoliate growing in ground in zone 6. I’ve gotten 2 small seedless fruits. Love to get those chimeras to grow and graft. It gets down to -10 degrees F here. Saw a vlog that had the best use for trifoliate fruit. The fuzz was scrubbed off. The fruit was juiced into a jar. The rind was cut into pieces and added to the juice. A couple of tablespoons of canning salt was added. After a couple weeks, the salted hardy orange cured into a condiment. It was added into broth, soup and stew for flavoring. I have done a version of this with lemons for years. Traditional Middle Eastern flavoring. Usually put salted lemon into roasting chicken. Fantastic! Good luck to you!
@@kathleenebsen2659 Thank you! Very interesting use for the fruit, it's great to have some form of organic citrus in zone 6.
I believe Prague should be hardy to zone 7 but I haven't heard about zone 6 yet.
I do know that someone in your zone in Pennsylvania has managed to grow F2 C-35 citrange hybrids (ruby orange x trifoliate orange) that survived to -11°F. The fruit have more juice and a better taste apparently - their experiments can be found on the Cold Hardy Citrus Tropical Fruit Forum.
What time of the year did you graft them?
I believe these were done in May sometime after the last frost and when the main plant was growing again.