By Sharon Omahen
University of Georgia

David Dowdy harvested enough tangerines from his backyard
tree to
give a small basketful to each of his family members. That may
not impress you, except that Dowdy lives in Georgia, not
Florida.

University of Georgia specialists say citrus trees can grow in
coastal and extreme southern Georgia with proper attention to
selection and cold hardiness.

South Georgia best

They grow best south of a Columbus-to-Macon-to-Augusta line,
said
Marco Fonseca, a Cooperative Extension horticulturist with the
UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Fonseca strongly discourages trying to grow citrus in middle
to
north Georgia or in home landscapes lower than U.S. Department of
Agriculture zone 9.

“The most significant limiting factor to citrus culture in
these
areas is the damage from severe winter temperature,” he said.
“Georgians along the coast have had success the past few years
due to the mild winters.”

Fonseca has seen citrus growing as far north as Cherokee Co.,
but
only trifoliate-oranges. “This is a thorny tree with fruit that’s
so sour it’s inedible,” he said.

Georgia’s unpredictable weather also lessens homeowners’
chances
of success. “It can be 75 degrees one day and below freezing the
next,” he said. “This will obviously kill new growth and blooms
or flowers that could become fruit (and) put added stress on the
plant.”

Kumquats: several varieties, uses

Dowdy lives in Brunswick, Ga. There, he doesn’t worry much
about
frost and freeze damage. “When I was a teenager, our family had a
kumquat tree in our yard on Jekyll Island,” he said. “So my first
citrus tree was a kumquat.”

Good choice. Kumquats are the most cold hardy of the commonly
grown acid citrus fruits. “Kumquats have delayed growth in the
spring,” Fonseca said. “This helps them avoid late freeze
damage.”

The kumquat is widely grown in home landscapes. It becomes an
attractive, shrub-like tree with orange-like fruits about 1 inch
in diameter.

The fruits can be eaten fresh, peel and all, or used to make
jellies, marmalade and candies. Several varieties are available.
But only three are commonly propagated: Nagami, Marumi and
Meiwa.

“Nagami fruits are oblong to pear-shaped and have acid pulp,”
Fonseca said. “The others are sweeter and rounder. Meiwa, which
produces nearly round, sweet fruit, has become one of the most
popular varieties for home planting.”

Unfortunately, Dowdy’s kumquat plant declined and died. His
next
citrus tree has brought much more success.

Experimenting with different citrus

“The tangerine tree just took off and produced a lot of fruit
in
just a year,” he said. “I planted it by a huge oak tree, so I
think it protects the tree from what little frost we do get.”

The first year, Dowdy drove into Florida to buy citrus-fruit
fertilizer.

“The second year, it started looking bad, so I bought
citrus-fruit spikes from Home Depot,” he said. “It perked up
after that and produced so much fruit that the limbs broke.”

Dowdy and his neighbors often share their harvests. “On my
street
alone, we have grapefruits, oranges, kumquats and tangerines
growing,” he said.

Not just for fruit

Citrus plants can be grown as individual plants or in groups
as
hedges, Fonseca said. They also make excellent container
plants.

“In addition to providing fruits, citrus plants make
attractive
ornamental specimens,” he said. “And they’re self-fruitful, so
they don’t require cross-pollination.”

Hybrid plants called citranges have been crossed to grow
better
in Georgia conditions, he said. “I know of two varieties that are
growing in Telfair County and Thomasville,” he said. “They
produce blooms, but the fruit is lemon-like.”

Back in Brunswick, Dowdy’s already planning his next citrus
experiment. “My neighbors are now growing big grapefruits that
I’d put up against Florida-grown fruit,” he said. “Maybe now I’ll
try to grow a pineapple.”

Pineapple plants can be potted and easily brought indoors,
too,
Fonseca said.