Welcome and thanks!

@ Yw! 😊

No, I don't. You can try Stan at Mckenzie Farms.

No, I have not. How cold hardy are they and where can you buy seeds for them?

@@sweethomealabamahomestead4504 Tradewinds is currently out of stock on seeds but Raindance has seeds in stock. Rooted plants can also be purchased, Wellspring has em for $26 USD Fruit can also be ordered online (IHeartFruitBox). Weird Explorer did a fruit review on them in 2017, Episode 217. Some other varieties of papaya like Babaco sometimes get called Mountain Papaya, but I'm specifically talking about Vasconcellea pubescens. Wikipedia suggests damage below 36F, but some other sites say "high 20's for brief periods of time". They are one of the most cold hardy varieties of papaya. You might need a few of these trees for your collection, wink wink. I don't have any experience with them myself -- only learned about them recently. Again, the fruit size is pretty small so most people shouldn't get too excited for them, but they seem intriguing to the zone pushers and maybe its an exotic treat for local birds if they would know to have a go at them.

I got them off of Craigslist from a guy selling them on there. The good thing about your big one is all those can handle a little cold. My passion vines is taking over mine.(: Most of my stuff and handle down to 20F, but if we go to 0F like we did last year it will be hard to keep it that hot.

That is a good idea, I saw you did that with your meyer lemon. It would be really good if I could make it where I could move the water through all the barrels.

It has done great so far with 30 mph gust, the plastic helps it hold together as well. I'll keep you up to date if it blows away.(:

I'm going to try Yuzu out side to but I don't think it will make it through 0F.

I saw a lot of people doing the compost with pipe running through it with a fan, but i think you would need a big pile of compost(:

@ I agree, a lot of compost is needed for such a large space. It’s really difficult trying to figure out how to manage a proper greenhouse temp without much input. Have you ever read about the Soviet citrologists? They had all of these techniques for growing citrus in their harsh environment. In my own observations, growing in an understory gives citrus a great advantage. I had about 15 or so meyers and calamondins in ground that were very well established before a 16 degree freeze. All of the ones out in the open died to the ground but the ones under the oaks didn’t lose branches or anything. I thought that was pretty interesting! This article is on the Soviet citrologists methods, really neat info, might be fun to experiment with some of these techniques. Obviously some of the methods require more work than I’d like to input lol but maybe they could be incorporated in a miniature fashion for experimentation. I definitely want to try! solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2020/04/fruit-trenches-cultivating-subtropical-plants-in-freezing-temperatures

And I really appreciate all of your updates! For being in a zone 7, it takes a lot of effort to grow citrus. I think you’re going to have so much to offer with your experiences and I can’t wait to see what the future holds!

You are welcome. It has not blown away yet so that is a good thing.(:

I heard that if you dig down it will put more heat out.

@ it’s all about minimizing the amount of actual “glass/plastic” surface area.

Thanks for the info. All of the plant in here are some what cold hardy to start with, except the passion vine so I was going to try and keep it alive.

I mulch them with straw or leafs.

@sweethomealabamahomestead4504 Okay thanks, I'm trying that next year ! I didn't think they could reliably come back like that. I thought you needed to dig them up and store them in a cool place, like I do for yacon. But in my area the ground can freeze quite deeply some years.

@@Hydreii What zone are you in? Where I'm at if I mulch it with 1 to 2 feet of mulch the ground does not freeze and so they can keep alive. I got down to 0F last year.

@@sweethomealabamahomestead4504 7b, in Europe

​@@sweethomealabamahomestead4504 I'm in 7b, in Europe. Our long, humid winters make it hard to keep the roots of tropicals alive most of the time. When it gets too cold, freezing water seeps into the ground, and plants just don't recover from these low temps and rot. I've lost plenty of stuff because of that, so I either keep plants in pots or dig them up. Some plants do okay for me even in cold ground as long as it doesn't freeze too deep, like elephant ear/taro, lemon verbena, arrowroot... But goldenberry can't survive, even when buried deep and in a dry spot, it rots because it can't recover from the cold despite not freezing. I thought sugarcane couldn't recover from cold easily, and so for me it would just rot under the mulch because the ground is too cold to keep it alive... I haven't tried sugarcane yet, I thought it could never grow in colder zones, that it was too tropical.

How would you say the cold hardness is? I have a few seedlings from them and they went through the 18F we had a a week ago better then some of the other trifoliate hybrids at a young age.

​@@sweethomealabamahomestead4504 I'm curious about this too. Our grafted Citremon took 16.9°F with high winds and no damage whatsoever. I did notice its seedlings aren't particularly excited to grow.

@ mid single digits at least.

Each year is a little different. I hope we don't have the cold we have had the last 2 years.

So much to learn and try with this cold hardy citrus. I would have thought the citrumelo would be one of the more cold hardy.

I think they just need more time to establish as they looked young, come spring they should regrow just fine, but yeah lots of learning involved in this hobby. Keep up the great work man!

Yes you are right, always learning new things.

You should be able to grow lot of stuff. How close to Atlanta are you? was wondering if you where in the mountains or lower down.

@@sweethomealabamahomestead4504 I'll be growing my citrus in Monticello, Ga, which is an hour south east of Atlanta. However it get's colder here than metro Atlanta, sometimes by 7-8 degrees. No asphalt and concrete. Last week it dropped to 18 degrees, I'm glad I had my keraji and yuzu in the ground protected.

Wow! Are you in a low place?

@@doggiefamily908 That is cold for that far south this time of year. That is same tem I got down to this cold snap and I'm in north AL. I do know what you mean about being out in the country, I get a little colder then metros. You should be able to grow the keraji and yuzu alot better then me.

@@CitrusPalmsWithTom we're not far from the Jackson lake, so it might be the case. I assumed that it was because of the rural area, but you might have a point.

Both of my citrange died back to the root a few years a and starting coming back late summer this year, one of them was the Morton.

@@sweethomealabamahomestead4504 ah yeah I remember now, Morton is not hardy enough for us in zone 7 unfortunately. I have some grafts outside but expect them to die in a severe winter. Also stuck one in my greenhouse which will atleast be protected from that, I have a single fruit on that plant which I am waiting to drop off the tree.

Those younger trees will likely be more cold hardy when they are older and the outer layer of the trunk & branches thicken. How many christmas light strands do you put on each outlet?

It’s good that you covered the smaller stuff, but a cover alone won’t provide more than 5 degrees or so of protection, depending on the quality of the cover. Adding incandescent lights and/or a barrel of water will do a lot.

I hope you can get them to go for you.

I will. They are not bad green either. They are also very pretty and fun plants to grown too.

@sweethomealabamahomestead4504 Definitely, I had some a while back that I killed in the Fall/Winter due to root rot. I actually like eating papaya when they are green but the flesh has turned orange.

That is interesting and give me a little hope I can. I tried to pick varieties that had shorter ripen times.

Yes first time I have tried them green and they are not bad at all.

I planted in 2016 so 8 years but it was a grafted tree but small.

@@sweethomealabamahomestead4504 i think you mentioned its on flying dragon? my original one is def on it, 4 years old and tiny no flowers. the graft on taitri is 4-5ft tall and already flowered in half the time

@@raregrowsNJ I saw that on your channel and got some taitri grafting but none took. I don't know if it is flying dragon or tri.

@@sweethomealabamahomestead4504 my guess is that yours is on flying dragon due to taking 8 years. i think i mentioned it already but so far taitri is good in zone 7 as a rootstock for my other hardy citrus

I got it from you in 2016 so 8 year. This year is the first year it has had this many fruit. Do you know what you grafted it on to? it seems like it is staying smaller so was wondering if it was flying dragon rootstock. Also does your fruit ever have seeds?

You are to be commended on a job well done! I have used Flying dragon some in the past, but I find they grow the scion off too slow to be profitable. I would say Im about 99 percent its on standard trifoliate. I do find an occasional seed in the prague fruit, but thats pretty much like finding a pearl in an oyster! You have a winner there!

I know they are really good and you can make a lime pie that you can't from the real thing. Did the fruit get to you ok?

@sweethomealabamahomestead4504 Lime pie is a good idea...I need to try that! We made a really tasty Citremon pie last year. I haven't gotten the fruit yet but I think it might get here by tomorrow!

@@themulberries key lime pie is one of the best. One of the best tasking key lime pie I have ever had was out on the outer bank of NC, thought since you where in NC that would be of interest.

Thanks!

It depends on the verity. On this prague my first batch will be 2 years old this spring and they are about 2 feet high.

Ok, thanks!

In zone 8 you can over winter it and it will get much bigger the second year. Hope it does well for you. I was thinking of trying to get different kinds to try.

I did eat some this year and they are not bad at all. they just got froze off last night, got down to 23F. I'm going to try and save the root, I made video of my plan but have not had time to upload it yet.

@@sweethomealabamahomestead4504 oh that will be interesting, yeah I’ve heard it can be done. Have you ever had them come back from the root in the past?

@@farleyschmackums No, this will be the first year I'm trying to keep them the same way I do the Bananas.

That is to bad. I saw some one in VA growing one in zone 7 but I don't know how cold he has gotten since the tree is still small.

@sweethomealabamahomestead4504 I'm going to throw a frost cloth over it and maybe a tarp if we go below 10-15 this winter. otherwise I don't have a way to get power all the way back where the tree is. I think if you plant a mature Yuzu, on own root it can definitely survive mild winters and flower and fruit, if it dies back it will grow back from the base but won't flower that spring

@@raregrowsNJ You could try and but a 24 hour candle under there too just make sure it does not catch fire.

Yes with a little protection they have made it through 0F.

To me they might have a little more sour to them but then again different kinds of Satsuma are different and how ripe they are.

It has gone through them without die back. I was able to cover it better since it is small though.

It is trifoliate or flying dragon.

Thanks.

This is the most I have gotten off of it, so lets hope in the coming years it keeps doing that well.

With some protection 0F.

@sweethomealabamahomestead4504 thank you very much for your answer. this is very good

It dies all the way back. I'm going to try and protected it this year and try to see if I can over winter the root.

Yes Changsha taste really good but not sure if it will make it here in zone 7. I'm really happy to try and grow the TriSat since it should be really cold hardy. We will see as I try and grow it how cold it can go.

@@sweethomealabamahomestead4504Changhsha is pretry much bulletproof to about 15. Below that, it depends on the duration.

That is great news. How cold has it made it through?

I can’t really speak for the coldest that it can handle…as this last winter was its first in ground and it was quite mild…but it saw high teens with no damage whatsoever, with many back to back nights in low 20s all winter long. It can definitely take more cold…I have seen some images of them handling 5° with some defoliation.