Question about my fruit trees.

Hi I live in Mobile AL zone 8. I have various fruit trees planted in the front of my yard, a plum tree, a lemon Meyer tree, a chinese persimmon tree and a loquat tree. All my trees have lost their leaves, the plum looks like a stick, but I was told this tree goes dormant in the winter, the persimon is the same way, and the lemon tree has lost almost all its leaves but the branches look green, the only one that has not lost any leaves is the loquat tree.

My question is I have not been covering the trees at all with this low temps we've been having at all, did I hurt them? Will they recover? What should I do if the temps continue to be in teh 20's at night?

Also I have been giving my trees some fish emulsion fertilizer in the summer months, nothing in the winter though, what type of fertilizer should I use for these trees?

When should I start pruning the trees, do I have to prune all of them or just a few of the trees I have?

Sorry I am very new at growing fruit trees at all so I have more questions than anything and would appreciate any advice, thanks.

Carmen

Perhaps someone growing these trees in your zone will be able to better address these issues for you. However, most plums are usually hardier than your zone and will drop leaves during the winter, so that would should not be having a problem. You did not say what variety you have. There can be a big range of hardiness because of the variety you choose to grow. That applies to the persimmon (kaki), lemon and likely the loquat as well.

The best advice I can give you is to use plenty of mulch on your trees on the ground. When attempting to grow "out of zone", meaning to grow a tree or plant in an area that gets a bit colder than is normal for that type of tree, you want to try to select the warmest and best protected site you can manage for it, as long as the site is appropriate.

You prune trees for a specific purpose - to trigger premature fruiting, to establish a structure, remove poor or damaged growth, etc. You have time for this, so do some research on the web. A good writer is Lee Reich and I believe he has a book out that is about pruning. Be aware that different kinds of trees are pruned differently, so some research is appropriate.

Always listen to Krowten. He is correct.

Apples, Plums, Pears, Apricots, Peaches and Nectarines should all be safe in zone 8a. There might be a few exceptions but as a general rule, you are fine. You should not think about protecting them unless you are hitting below zero degrees.

It is important that these types of trees get enough cold. It is called chill requirement and these trees will not produce fruit unless they get enough cold hours every winter. If you know the names of your varieties, you can find their chill requirement on the internet.

Loquats should be hardy below 10F but if their flowers are in bloom and get exposed to temps below 23F, you might lose your crop. Loquats usually bloom during the winter and the fruit is ready in Feb-April. Once the fruit has formed on the tree, they can take dips in the low teens.

Meyers Lemon trees are hardy around 19-23F degrees. If it is still small, it will be more susceptible to freeze. In zone 8a, you need to keep it in a pot or protect it with plastic and a 100 watt light bulb. I would suggest trying a more cold hardy citrus such as Satsuma orange or Kumquat. They both can take from 14-16F.

There is a product on the market called FreezePruf that you can spray on your lemon to increase its cold hardiness for 6 weeks. It will increase the temps it can take from 3-9F degrees.

Good luck!

There is much much more to growing trees such as soil type, location to sun, chill, pollination, etc.
Be sure to ask as many questions as possible and always get the name/varieties of your trees as specifics vary greatly from one to another.

Jujubetexas and I are going to form a mutual-admiration society! He is doing a great job on the warmer climate issues.

I have been struggling for about 10 years now, trying to grow a che tree to maturity in a zone 5 climate. Che is generally considered zone 6, but if you can get the tree established in the right micro-climate, it can survive in zone 5. I've gotten fruit a couple of times, but also lost about 6 trees. Persistence and learning can sometimes give you success but growing out of zone can be a real challenge.

Thank you guys! Yes I found somebody that actually grows lemons and satsuma oranges here in Mobile, she told me that when the tree is small, that it is safer to cover the tree or at least place mulch on the bottom of the tree to protect the bark, then after a few years they are O.K and can endure a couple of cold winter nights. Weather has been nuts, we had a couple of days of low 23-25 degrees and now we are back into the low 50's, with high of 70.

She did not know much about the other trees, except to tell me just like you mentioned that plums just go dormant during the winter months.

I figure I would get more info here in Daves since there is not a lot of people that grow fruit trees, or at least that I know of here in Mobile. My neighbor was laughing at me when I started planting the lemon tree in my front yard, he though citrus trees just don't grow here and that they would grow in California. I was very surprised to get 9 little lemons from this tree the first year. I will keep a better look at the temps from now on and cover at least the lemon tree if the temps drop into the 20's again.

Also what fertilizers do you recommend and how many times should I fertilize the trees? I was told by the man that sold me the plum tree to not fertilize it the first year. The plum tree I believe is a Damson Plum but not sure since I misplaced the tag.
The persimmon is called Ichi-Ki-Kei-Jiro Oriental Persimmon, and I purchased it from Stark bro's online, probably my most expensive tree.

Thanks for you help.

Your soil type is still very important to know.

That is a good variety of Persimmon. You can refer to it as Jiro. You might want to contact them and find out if it is grafted on Lotus or American Persimmon rootstock. If you have clay or heavy soil, Lotus will not do good. The tree will not grow large and pretty much stay the same size for a few years and then die. If you have a very sandy loose loam, then it should be fine.

The same can be said for the Lemon. If it is grafted on Sour Orange rootstock, it will hate heavy clay soils. If it is on Flying Dragon/Trifoliate rootstock, it will do fine.

That Lemon will have to be pampered since you are in zone 8a. That means that every few years, you will see temps below 10F. The only way to save that Lemon would be with a heavy blanket and light bulb. If you dont use the light, it will die. I am zone 8b and I have to really take care of mine.

Watch your plum for little syrup like bubbles. That means you have boring insects which Plums are susceptible to on a regular basis. You can order something to treat it if it happens. The rootstock of Plums is very adaptable and should be fine.

You need to use a heavy citrus fertilizer on your Lemon in late spring, summer and early fall. It will probably be something like a 12-12-12 for the citrus.

Persimmons and Plums need to be lightly fertilized if at all. Persimmons are know to drop fruit the first few years and that fruit drop increases with heavy fertilization. Plums can be susceptible to diseaase if over fertilized so just play it cool with something like a 3-3-3.

Thank you jujubetexas, unfortunately yes our soil is very clayish, it took me a long time to dig the holes to place the fruit trees in the ground. I had no idea about the different rootstock's, thank you for the info, I can probably find out about the persimmon but the lemon tree is going to be difficult since I purchased it from Home Depot a year ago and they really don't know much.

I just went to grow organics and purchased this fertilizer, I hope is good. http://www.groworganic.com/citrus-and-fruit-tree-food-7-3-3-4-lb-box.html.

I also have blueberries, grapes, and blackberries planted in the backyard so I thought this fertilizer could be used for those as well.

So how often do you fertilize your persimmon, plum trees, once a year, or even less?. What if I was to use worm compost for all my fruit trees, would this over
fertilize them?, I have some worm castings that are ready to use.

If the rootstock on the Lemon is larger than the graft, it is probably Trifoliate. If they are the same size, then it is probably Sour Orange.

Try that citrus fertilizer and see how you like it. You should work it into the soil right after the last frost.

Working worm castings into the top few inches of the soil around the tree wouldnt be a bad idea. Maybe with a little cow manure from Lowes. Do this maybe twice the first year. After that, you can up it a bit but not too much. Frankly, my Plum went nuts without any fertilizer.

VERY IMPORTANT!

When digging into clay soil, the Clay Pot Effect usually is a problem. When you dig into the clay, it creates a slick edge in the soil from the Shovel. When this dries, roots can not penetrate it for 1-2 seasons. The roots double back and the tree becomes rootbound in the area of the hole you dug. The hole should be a minimum of twice the size of the pot if not more. To eliminate the clay pot effect, take a fork shovel and pop the slick edges off once you are done digging.

Also, if you dig a big hole and fill it with really nice well drained soil in clay, it will just fill up with water and drown the tree unless it is on an incline or raised bed. It basically becomes a bucket. That is why you should always ammend very little in clay when planting a tree if there is any chance of water gathering in the area you planted.

I personally have ammended my clay for citrus and Avocado but I always did large holes about 4 feet across and 3 feet deep. It was always on a raised bed.

Thank you Jujubetexas, I'll have a look at my lemon tree and see what kind the rootstock is. I asked my DH yesterday what type of soil we had and he also read you messages as well, he said that even though our soil is very clayish like that it does let the water through, the soil we have is kind of a red, or dark orange type of soil.

I know that when we planted the trees we did make the hole a little bit bigger than twice the size of the container, then I mixed some peat moss with some home compost I had ready from my own compost and I believe we also did put some cow manure from Lowes.

By the way you have an avocado tree? I love avocados, do you have it in a pot or in the ground? I had no clue you could grow avocados unless you lived in a tropical area.

There are some new Avocado trees that can survive down to the 15-16F degree range. They are hard to come by unless you live in Texas where they are all being developed. Here is a site that carries some.

http://www.riversendnursery.com/product.asp?product=AB69349D

Brazos Belle is also called Wilma.
Lila is also called Opal.

They will need to be protected just like the Lemon.

They have special soil needs. You MUST plant them in a raised bed or on a good incline. Dig a very large hole and mix garden grade sand "not sand from Lowes" into the soil until you have a loose sandy loam. Also add gypsum to the soil really well. You can get that at a local nursery too. Give them lots of compost and citrus fertilizer. Dont fertilize after a late summer/early Fall.

Hi jujube...

Thanks for the link about growing avocados in TX. My brother in CA has a Hass avocado tree -- I'd love to be able have my own.

Jann

I'd remind you that we are having pretty screwy weather and a zone rating may or may not help in a given Winter. For example, people are growing key limes in South Florida now but my mother's key lime froze to death one year (long ago) in Fort Lauderdale (30 miles North of Miami). That's why they call them key limes.

If you mulch and cover your citrus as jujube describes it will reduce the danger a lot. If you have a favorite citrus, you can cover it with a king size sheet and put a single 100 watt light bulb under it to add a little heat.

The hardening off effect of a slow drop in night time temps as I am having this Fall also helps a lot. My fig trees seem to be hardened off quite well this year. I am hoping for a missed late frost next Spring so I will get a lot of figs.

I don't know if keeping my fingers crossed has helped.

Paul

pbylrey is correct.
A gradual decrease in temps heading into winter is very helpful. If you get hit with a huge drop in temps without the plant being exposed to some cold first is very bad. Citrus on trifoliate rootstock is better equiped for this because it goes dormant and this helps the graft deal with cold better.

They say a winter blast is coming down Monday and will be the coldest this year. Be ready.