I guess winter is coming

[squirrelitude]

Today I finally did the main part of our winterizing:

- Opened the exterior hose spigot and closed the interior stopcock
- Drained the hoses, coiled them up, and closed their ends to keep the critters out
- Emptied the rain barrels, coiled the overflow drains, and set the barrels on their sides
- Tested the steam heating
- Brought the plants in, oh god so many plants where will I put them all

Yesterday the landlord finally got someone to go around and clean the gutters and install leaf guards. (Yay!) I found chunks of gritty soil in the driveway that had been scooped out of the gutters, along with some chunks of ice. We apparently had first frost a few weeks ago, and I know the weather reports have had the local temperature dropping to freezing, but the plants have been protected from the cold so far by shelter and ground warmth. (The gutters, not so much.) I think the plants are pretty much about done, though; all the cold sensitive ones have been weakening, and I don't know *which* of my citrus are cold hardy, and how much. (The mandarins, yes, but unsure on the calamondins etc.) And honestly there just aren't that many degree-days left, so bring 'em in.

Here's hoping the spider mites don't get too bad this year. I might get some predatory mites again, and am considering experimenting with a large humidity tent for one of the plant tables.

Comments

[wpadmirer]

I so rarely have to do anything about my plants in the winter. I do have a lemon tree, and last year I covered it during a freeze, but it's too tall now. So I'll probably have to let it ride it out and hope it does well.

We still have a big hole in the roof of the guest bedroom covered by tarps. We hoping for a roof by Christmas. Until then, we're paying to store that furniture and other things. (sigh)

But winterizing isn't really something we worry about here. Thank goodness!

[squirrelitude]

The thing that bugs me the most is having to empty the rain barrels for the winter. I really wish I could keep those full. But... too much risk of them freezing and cracking. :-/

The chang sha mandarins are apparently cold hardy down to about -11°C / 12°F, but my dad (in central Virginia) has had mixed luck with that.

[yarrowkat]

...cold hardy down to 12 Farenheit? i might need to try growing this. we almost never get winter overnight lows lower than that.

digging a little, i see it reccomended for zones 8-9; we're in 7b here in central NM. i have a very sheltered side-yard that we think is a tiny micro-zone 8 because so many things grow differently there (and we successfully overwinter dahlias in the soil there but not elsewhere). maybe we can put it there!

[squirrelitude]

For reference, my dad is in zone 7a in central Virginia, and when he tried keeping them outdoors about half of them died. Now he overwinters them in the house. (They're about 6 feet tall, reasonably portable.) After some experimentation, he discovered that what they want is to basically just be stored in a cold, dimly lit room and watered very sparingly. He used the garage last year, which has some small south-facing windows in the garage door, and the plants he kept in there flowered and fruited quite heavily that spring and summer.

It sounds like you could probably get away with it, especially if you keep it pruned low and bushy and/or near a wall. I recently read an article about trench cultivation of citrus in Russia and it sounds like just keeping them out of the wind and near thermal mass is a big boost.

Up here in Somerville, MA, we're in zone 6b. Not so very different from central Virginia, which always astonishes me.

[yarrowkat]

that's super helpful, thank you!

[nablacdotu]

Up here in Somerville, MA, we're in zone 6b.

I was going to correct you, but then I looked it up and discovered that Boston has gone up by a full zone since the last time I looked. :(

[wispfox]

I fight scale and those fluffy cotton-looking things, myself.

[squirrelitude]

Oh yeah, scale is a thing too. My citrus get those all over, and I don't find out until they're lousy with 'em. I think my dad uses a soap or oil spray, not sure.

Never had the fluffy things here, for some reason. (Woolly aphids?)

[wispfox]

Probably neem oil. Works ok if you remember to use it enough. :)

And I think mealybugs: https://www.guide-to-houseplants.com/mealybugs.html

[squirrelitude]

I don't think he uses neem oil much -- I know he uses soap on some plants, and horticultural oil spray on others. And he definitely uses pyrethrins at times. I think that's about it for the indoor/outdoor plants.

I've brought a tomatillo cutting inside and it already shows signs of spider mites under the humidity tent, so I've got my neem spray mixed up and ready...