How to protect your citrus trees from a freeze

Kelly:

Hi, I’m Kelly with Plants for All Seasons, and today we’re going to talk a little bit about citrus and what to do in the wintertime or when we’re going to have a frost or a freeze.

So we have citrus with fruit on it right here. This is a kumquat, beautiful, and it’s in wintertime. And if we were to have a freeze, we’d want to protect that fruit. So some people will keep their citrus in containers that are small enough to move.

But let’s just say your tree’s gotten big or you cannot physically lift your tree anymore and move it inside. What do you do? Well, you would cover it. And you would use an insulated blanket, that’s the best thing. So on the market, there are different kind of blankets that are insulated fabric that will keep your trees, shrubs warmer than the outside temperature.

These are not meant for when we’re going down into the 20s. These are meant for when we’re right around the 30 degrees and above range, just to keep your plants a little bit warmer. If we’re going down in the 20s, guys, definitely bring your plants in, tuck them in bed with you because that’s how they’re going to stay warm. But if it’s going to be kind of just a frost or a light freeze, the little blankets and insulated covers are the way to go.
Also, in the wintertime, a lot of times we’ll see our blooms on our citrus. We also want to protect those if we’re going to have a frost or freeze. So again, we’re going to be covering.

And here’s how you would do that: if it’s outside in a container, we would get our handy dandy blankets out and get them all nice and unfolded. Sometimes this is a two person job. Sometimes it’s a one person job, but today it’s a one person job. So here we go. You would just get it over the top of your plant. Hopefully you have a good-sized one. It doesn’t matter if your plant gets a little bit floppy, you’re not going to hurt it. And then you would want to make sure you’ve got it covered down to where the pot is, where the soil is, and you’re going to want to bring that in and secure it around your pot.

Sometimes I use bungee cords. I don’t have one today to show you, but visually, just imagine that. A bungee cord around your pot to secure it so the blanket won’t fly off. That’s very important.

The reason why we want to come down the pot is because the soil also needs to be protected. Your roots need to be protected. And the moisture in the soil, as it evaporates, also keeps the plant warmer under the blanket and heat rises. So that will help keep the tree warmer.

Let’s say your blanket blows off of your plant and you come out the next day and your plant is sad. And we get further down the road and your tree has died or what appears to have died. And then we get to spring and you think, “Oh my goodness, my tree is coming back.” But you look and your foliage looks different. This is called trifoliate.

And most of your commercial plants that you’re buying citrus in the nurseries are grafted. And so if we look down here, we see these two main stocks coming out to the side of this line right here. That’s your graft line.

So all of this growth that you’re getting the next spring, if it’s not this and it looks weird like this with the three leaves, that is trifolia and that is not going to produce a viable fruit and your tree is no longer the same. So cut that off when you see it.

If you get a lot of this and you don’t get your normal leaves back, your tree is gone unfortunately. So do what you can to protect your citrus in the wintertime by covering, or like I said, take them inside if you can still move them.