I planted an orange tree and a lemon tree today

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

I live a little north in Florida for planting citrus. But we haven't had a freeze in over 3 years. I figure we are more like Zone 10 than the Zone 8 that we used to be.

I reckon when your handed global warming, you make lemonade.

Anyway, I see it as my little experiment.

[crikkett]

1. we had to cover our citrus during our oddball freeze last winter but it did fine.

And I think that Sunset is adjusting planting zones. Has your local Nursery got any updated zoning information?

[Gormy Cuss]

2. Lemons will do just fine in a frost down to about 20-25 degrees.

Oranges are okay at a slighter lower frost temperature. The biggest risk is when they're young trees but there are easy ways to protect them too.

Growing your own citrus means that in a few years you'll be lowering your carbon footprint a little bit by using only foot power to harvest that food. When the trees mature you'll be sharing that fruit with many people locally, again making a little dent in the carbon footprint.

Win-win, I say.

[AndyTiedye]

3. We Put Xmas Lights on Our Citrus Trees to Protect Them from Last Winter's Freeze

We've switched to LED xmas lights, but still have the old incandescent ones around,
and those put out enough heat to give some protection from freezing,
so we put them on our citrus plants last winter and illuminated them
when it got cold enough to be a threat to the plants.