Growing grapefruit and pomegranate outdoors in zone 6b/7a

seedscanada · Post by **seedscanada** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 9:39 pm

Here is how we do it. The pomegranate doessurvive with no protection, but takes a while to pop back in the spring if only shielded from winter wind.
Pomegranate here was planted summer 2008 at 3 years old from seed.
Grapefruit here was planted summer 2009 at 2 years old from seed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m93H15lJy2U

Video of our hoophouse/ glasshouse setup over the past two years.

canadianplant · Post by **canadianplant** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 5:35 am

Ahhhhhhh..... Now I get what you were talkin about!

Good job dude. I read you can grow pomagranates in zone 4 or 5 with some protection, but dont expect any flowers..... I guess a little bit of protection makes the difference!

Do you know the temps during mid winter in the hoophouse? By the math you gave in the vid, it shouldnt get lower then -18c or so, and im assuming warmer in the glass house. This seems somewhat similar to arctictropicals methods in utah. He builds wooden boxes around hsi palms, and hooks up a few light bulbs and BOOM, a plethora of palms in zone 5.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 10:39 am

Thanks for posting that video link, now I get what you mean.
Good job.
And if it got really really cold you could easily throw a ceramic heater in there.

My potted 5' tall grapefruit has never had a blossom.
Still looking for a decent fertilizer.

Barb

seedscanada · Post by **seedscanada** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 6:27 pm

Since we've been here in Beamsville, our coldest nights have been: 2011 (-17 to -20 celcius for 15 hours straight ), 2010 (-17 c), 2009 (-17c)
In the hoophouse, the ground never froze, due to daytime heating by the sun. The coldest night in there had to be about -12c. In the glassbox we put on a second and somtimes a third light... the coldest night in there was 9 degrees celcius. To assist in not scorching the grapefruit, the secondary bulb was activated by a thermocube in the hoophouse, while the primary bulb(s) were on 24/7.

The exception was the night i accidentally left the lights off when watering. It got down to -17 that night. At breakfast the next morning, I looked at our remote digital thermometer (transmitter in glassbox, receiver in dining room). Thought to myself, "wow, its gotten down to 8.6 in there overnight , usually it is around ten, nine at the coldest... oh crap that's -8.6! Minus 8.6! Ahh!" I tore out there in my pj's and knew rightaway I had to put all the lights back on. Within 20 minutes, the grapefruit tree was back above freezing. But the damage had been done. Within a day or so, it lost close to 90% of its foliage and all of it had curled. It had been without a supply of heat for about 13 hours, freezing for maybe six. All but one branch had died back. Within a couple weeks, the grapefruit began regenerating. This all happened in late January of 2011. By april, the plant had grown back enough, it was practically bursting from its 2 x 2 x2 glass box. Now, as i said, it is almost six feet tall. Wow.

Citrus tend to blossom once they are about ten years old, which is why most commercially sold citrus plants are grafted from mature plants to flower in their first year of consumer ownership.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Sun Oct 23, 2011 9:54 am

Holy cow, that episode would've had me racing out in my PJs too.
Good to hear that grapefruit bounce back so well, generally it's duration of cold that does a plant in.
Thank goodness you noticed that when you did!

Where--in Canada--did you get your thermocube? I had to mail order one from a sheep/farm supply place in the US last year.
Shipping was horrendous $ for a 6 ounce item. Think I paid around $32 total ... yup!! for ONE thermocube.

My grapefruit tree was a gift from friends who no longer had room for it.
They trimmed it back to the same pruning cut each year,

never allowing it to outgrow their apartment corner.
I've let it grow and it grew four feet the first year.
The thorns are brutal though.

I've seen the blossoms on small citrus at the box stores; your explanation makes sense.
Have a feeling that mine is from a seed...no idea how old it is.

Barb

canadianplant · Post by **canadianplant** » Sun Oct 23, 2011 9:56 am

Convinced me to plant my pomagranate seedling next year!

Paul Ont · Post by **Paul Ont** » Sun Oct 23, 2011 12:21 pm

Adam- That is Awesome! Other then people growing Poncirus, I don't know of anyone else growing citrus outdoors in Ontario. That's really cool.

canadianplant · Post by **canadianplant** » Sun Oct 23, 2011 12:24 pm

Almost makes you wanna try a small orange or lemon tree eh?

seedscanada · Post by **seedscanada** » Sun Oct 23, 2011 4:54 pm

Absolutely. I had to get my thermocube online from the U.S. as well, but I think it was maybe 20 dollars everything in.

The only reason I ever put a pomegranate outside was when I lived in Hamilton, ON (zone 6a) I had three.. I planted two outside and kept one inside. It blew my mind that it never died back. Grew more the next two years. This was a seedling less than a year old with NO protection when I put it out. That twas in 2006. I guess that one I had kept inside is the one I planted here when we moved here in 2008, which is now 6 feet tall.

The next plants I will put in the garden this week are one of my potted Loquat trees (Eriobotrya japonica) and maybe a couple of my Jujube trees (Zizyphus jujuba). Both have grown VERY well potted from seed this spring.
Adam

Jubaea · Post by **Jubaea** » Sun Oct 23, 2011 8:31 pm

What are you going to do with all the yuccas?

With Citrus they require a certain node count before they mature and bloom. If they are pruned back then that will set back the node count meaning that you will not get any blooms. Grapefruit require more nodes and time then other citrus varieties such as the mexican lime. To overcome this you can bud/graft mature scion onto a seedling. A seedling grapefruit most likly will not fruit in Canada unless you have an enourmous greenhouse or a 20ft celing in a house with lots of windows.

TimMAz6 · Post by **TimMAz6** » Fri Oct 28, 2011 12:08 pm

very cool Adam.

Is that a 'normal' store grapefruit?

Nice Yuccas too. Do you have any special Yuccas?

Tim MA z6

seedscanada · Post by **seedscanada** » Fri Oct 28, 2011 5:57 pm

TimMAz6 wrote:
Is that a 'normal' store grapefruit?

Nice Yuccas too. Do you have any special Yuccas?

These are normal store bought grapefruit. I planted the seeds just for fun. Last night was our first hard frost this year. So glad I guilt its glasshouse around it on wednesday! Two 40 watt bulbs add about 10 c in there. 12.6 c in there right now. Got up to over 37 c today in there in midday sun roasting hot in comparison to outside temps.

Special yuccas... well my glauca has a trunk. I have a constricta x filamentosa? hybrid. Newer seedlings still indoors are elata "utahensis" and harrimaniae "gilbernana".

Also only potted I have SO MANY Jujube tree seedlings, Zizyphus jujuba. Gotta find a spot for one or two of those in the spring.

TimMAz6 · Post by **TimMAz6** » Fri Oct 28, 2011 6:24 pm

Y. constricta x filamentosa hybrids are cool. I love the tall blooms. I wish I had the guts to get ride of some of mine. I have 13 different seed grown plants.

<img src=http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c309/ ... e277-1.jpg>

seedscanada · Post by **seedscanada** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 7:53 pm

Fourth summer since being planted outdoors, our Citrus paradisi grapefruit has gone from roughly 28" tall in October to 64" tall July 1 2012

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/seedscanada/7483838094/" title="Lincoln-20120701-00877 by seedscanada, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8152/7483 ... f516_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="Lincoln-20120701-00877"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/seedscanada/7483840916/" title="Lincoln-20120701-00878 by seedscanada, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7137/7483 ... f492_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="Lincoln-20120701-00878"></a>

trunk of 7 year old grapefruit tree now over 5 foot tall

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/seedscanada/7483839158/" title="Lincoln-20120701-00879 by seedscanada, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8145/7483 ... d8d0_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="Lincoln-20120701-00879"></a>

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 10:08 am

Holy moly, that's spectacular, Adam.

Going to have to pay more attention to mine.

Barb

PalmsNorth.com

Growing grapefruit and pomegranate outdoors in zone 6b/7a

Growing grapefruit and pomegranate outdoors in zone 6b/7a

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