I'm interested in growing a few dwarf citrus trees in my greenhouse. Does anyone have any experience with this? I'm interested in growing a "Moro blood orange" and "Pink lemonade variegated lemon" and maybe a lime, not sure which variety. Will the blood orange and variegated lemon trees do well in a greenhouse? I'm considering a "Meyer's lemon" instead since it sounds much hardier and more productive than the variegated. Any thoughts? Has anyone grown a lime tree? Which varieties would do well?
Also, can you prune a semi-dwarf citrus down to a smaller, greenhouse sized tree or will that hurt it?
which citrus in greenhouse
I have three dwarf citrus in my GH. They are true dwarf, on Flying Dragon rootstock, and are not supposed to grow higher than 8 or 10 feet, and my GH is 10 feet high. I have pink grapefruit, tangelo, and orange. I have had two of them for a year and recently bought the third. That is all I have room for in my GH, because so much room is taken up by the water barrels that keep it from freezing temps. They are doing well, I even have my first grapefruit growing on the tree.
I bought one semi-dwarf orange, when the Lowe's salesman swore up and down it was the same. He lied. It was on C-35 rootstock and would have grown to 15 feet.
You can probably prune larger citrus trees, but I would just pay a little more and find some on Flying Dragon. I hope you have a local nursery that sells them. The nursery where I bought mine had all kinds of varieties grafted onto Flying Dragon. I paid about $30 each for them.
All my citrus are in the greenhouse for the winter, then they go outside.
Meyer lemons do very well, as do Eurekas (grocery store lemon). Variegated just don't grow that well for me.
My Moro is chock-full of blossoms right now, but I bought it as a 2 year old plant and this will be the third year I've owned it.
I grow both Key Lime and Bearrs Lime, the Key Lime does better for me, the Bearrs lime is the first one to get buggy.
Meiwa kumquats are very good, easy to grow and give a good crop, You can pluck them off the tree and eat them, they are very sweet.
When growing citrus in a colder climate, you have to think about what you're going to do with the fruit. Make sure you grow something you'll be eating or something you can use. For example, growing 4 types of Lemon might be fun, but there are only so many lemon bars you can make, lol.
Right, Lakeside. I really wanted a meyer lemon but don't have room. I had one in CA years ago and it was wonderful to be able to just reach out the door and pick lemons when I wanted them (and they made wonderful Christmas presents, each wrapped in clear plastic wrap and stacked pyramid-style like a little Christmas tree), but most were wasted. All my neighbors had their own!
It was a standard meyer lemon, not the improved, and it was fully mature and only was about 6 feet high.
BTW, the fruit on dwarf trees is full-sized. My two 2-year-old trees have bloomed off and on for the past year and have set fruit but most fell off when I transplanted them again into the ground in the GH, all except for the one grapefruit.
I wish I could have mine in the ground, I know they would do so much better.
AZGrammie, there's always room for one more plant!!
Miho satsuma, Meyer improved lemon and Mexican thornless lime. In the GH for winter and blooming right now. I ate the last satsuma crop in Dec/Jan. Like Lakesidecallas, I will move mine out for summer. I don't like thorns on the lemon so am nipping them as they develop. I will keep it pruned to size to keep it potted. It is probably not cold hardy here so will need to be moved in and out seasonally. First year for the lemon and the lime.
OK, Lakeside, maybe I can stick a little Meyer lemon in a pot! I was needing some lemons for a recipe last night and didn't have any. I refuse to pay what lemons cost at the grocery and it is 1.5 hours away anyhooo.
Podster, what is a miho satsuma?
It is larger than a kumquat and tasty. Miho is a more hardy satsuma. I should be able to plant in ground but haven't yet. When you asked that, I thought oh no, I called it by the wrong name and got caught! LOL
The link is to this satsuma in my journal. http://davesgarden.com/community/journals/viewentry/184681/
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