Impending freeze...cover satsuma tree?

For a satsuma that age, it doesn’t need to be covered. A younger, smaller satsuma should be protected when possible as they are more cold sensitive.

Satsuma’s are the 2nd most cold tolerant citrus next to kumquats. They tolerate temperatures in the mid-low 20s fairly easy provided they aren't exposed to those low temperatures continuously for 24, 48… consecutive hours - which it won’t be. It’s the length of exposure to sub-freezing temperature which is the key.

My 4 year old Brown Select Satsuma was too large to cover in last Feb’s 18 F lows, and damage to branches was minimal, it did lose many leaves which grew back, and the tree produced a fairly nice crop of fruit this year.

If you want you can cover/protect the graft Union on the main trunk.

If the tree has any remaining fruit though, you might want to remove those, as a hard freeze will damage the fruit.

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I may put blanket or something around the graft and put some Christmas lights if I can find some non LED lights in my shop. Guess that cant hurt.

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Certainly not.

Square bales of pine straw from the garden centers or even contractor bags of raked up leaves placed around the against the trunk do a good job of protecting the graft union from freezing cold.

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Craw, what about a mature (10+ year old) meyer lemon tree?

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Mature Meyer Lemons have good cold temperature tolerance. Not as good as satsumas, but much better than any other lemon variety. If you want you can protect the lower part of the trunk to above the graft union - not sure how visible that will be on on a 10 year old tree, protecting the lower 2 feet or so should do it.

Here’s a article by Dan Gill, retired extension consumer horticulturalist with the LSU AgCenter on protecting citrus in cold weather.

LINK