Does anyone have a grapefruit tree? I am curious about how easy/or not they are to grow. I glanced over on the fruit forum but didn't find anything quickly so I thought I'd ask here. :)
Grapefruit tree?
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/homefruit/citrus/citrus.html
Scroll down about half way to see the answers to your possible questions.
They are probably way out of your zone. You would need to keep it in a pot and bring it in during the winter. There are some new hybrids that are more cold tolerant but they are not sold in Texas and cant be bought online since it is illegal to ship citrus trees to Texas. There are other more cold hardy citrus that you might be able to do outdoors but not Grapefruit.
Thank you. I thought that might be the case after reading up some more. I think I just really needed someone else to tell me that also. I really just wasn't sure if you could zone push them. Thanks again:)
You can push a zone by planting close to the house on the South side but realistically you could only push grapefruit to zone 8b. You could cover it with blankets in 8A but once it got too big, you would lose it. Look at getting mandarins. Miho and Seto mandarin/satsumas are hardy to 14 degrees. Plant it right up on the warmest sunniest part of the South facing portion of your house. There are other varieties that are hardy to 5 degrees but the taste isnt very good.
You can buy foam insulation tubes and wrap the base up a few feet. If they top of the tree dies, the trunk will still be alive and will come back strong in Spring.
I don't have a grapefruit tree but I do have a Satsuma and two Valley lemons and a sour orange tree. All of these don't like snow!!! I don't have a leaf on any of them thats two years in a row. Before this its been 15 years without snow here whats up. I am depressed. At least they come back or at least they did last year one lemon tree was covered with little lemons too. But not any more :-( oh well stuff happens! I am in Zone 9. If I were you I would plant in a pot and put it in a warm place during the winter. Just my thoughts on that
Here is a good sign. Logees is selling a grapefruit hybrid that is supposedly hardy to zone 7. The bad news is you cant buy it cause it is illegal to ship here in Texas. Keep your eyes open to see if one pops up in the next few years. There are so many new cold hardy varieties being developed right now that there should be a citrus explosion in the next decade or two.
http://www.logees.com/prodinfo.asp?number=C2024-2