re: Will CitrusTrees make fruit after hard freeze

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My Key Lime tree took a beating.. No flowers so far..It has a bunch of dead branches that I haven't cut back, probably like half the tree died.

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- My key lime died in the freeze; I cut back all the dead branches and no new sprouts came out. Will cut down trunk soon.

-- My regular lime had all the branches and leaves dead and brown; cut it back and it sprouted leaves and branches like crazy. No flowers this year, though, so no fruit this year.

-- Neighbor's orange tree (which partially grows over my yard) had quite a few dead leaves and such, but had a ton of blooms and is now full of green oranges. Should be a bumper crop come holiday time...

As with most crop talk, your experience will vary on a number factors.

I was listening to Dan Gill just after the freezes and he was talking how the freezes would typically lead to a smaller or nonexistent harvest.

My trees are the complete opposite of that. I have a navel and a Louisiana Sweet. Both are loaded with fruit. It got down to 19 at my house. (My navel would have a lot more fruit but some stupid kids went pull out the baby oranges.) Now last year, neither tree had any edible fruit that made it to harvest. The year before both trees had lots of fruit.

Also, age plays a part. Most young trees can vary in their production.

Not sure. We had 3 Key Lime bushes, two died and we replaced only one of them. Hoping the older one bears fruit this year.. We have a new Satsuma tree that is very heavy with fruit.

Dad was an orange grower in Florida, so here is what I remember.

The blooms are particularly susceptible to freezes, so if they were beginning to bud when the freeze happened, you likely lost the fruit.

Citrus blooms from late Feb to early June, depending on the variety, with most blooming sometime in March. So, even if you have June-bloom Valencias, you should have already seen the blooms and have set fruit by now if the tree is going to produce this year. Just a couple of days difference in typical bloom dates between two trees next to each other can make a world of difference if the freeze comes on those particular days.

Based on this, I suspect that you will not have anything this year. If the trees are healthy and you don't have another freeze, you should be fine next year.

Hope that helps.

I had zero blooms this year but green and raring for next year.

I’m just happy mine are alive. I know my trees will not be productive this year.

Make sure the new growth you allow to grow is above the graft scare.

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ETA: seems to me like that cold, wet spring that we had kind of fricked up their minds.

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I think it's this. My orange tree has some fruit on it not near what it had last year at this time, but my tree has flowered 3 times this year that i have noticed. I don't recall it doing that in prior years. Granted I have only had the tree 4 years.

I lost my grapefruit and a lemon tree and 2 cumquats this year. Dead to the roots. They were over 15 years old and produced every year. My satsumas have a few fruit this year but they are set back.

Have about 20 on Satsuma tree. Tree was hit hard too. I was surprised it is producing as previous years it wouldn't.