Over-Wintering Citrus Trees

If like me, you live in a zone that makes growing citrus trees in the ground impossible, there is another option to have your citrus and eat it too.

I grow my citrus trees in pots. They live outside during the spring, summer and fall, and they move into my unheated, uninsulated garage over winter. I live in zone 8a and our winters can see days in the teens or even single digits sometimes.

Here is what works for me:

I keep the citrus trees (3 lemon and 1 lime) in the corner of my garage that is adjacent to the house and farthest from the garage door. This keeps them the coziest. My garage has windows, but it is much colder on that side of the garage. I use a bluetooth thermometer to see how cold the garage gets. Last night the temps went down to 25F and the garage temp went down to only 47F.

I am able to see the lowest temperature that occured in the garage overnight. This is not a Wifi thermometer, so you can not check it while away from home, but with the bluetooth function, I can check it anywhere inside my house.

Govee Thermometer

I also give my citrus some extra light during the time in the garage. I use a garage led light. The one I have is no longer available but this one is similar.

If you choose to purchase a light like mine, you will need a clamp light socket into which to screw it.

I have one like this:

I move my larger lemon trees on a furniture dolly like this one because it allows me to easily bring them in and out of the garage on a nice day. I tied a long piece of rope to one end and just pull them where I want them. I placed three deck boards across the top of the dolly to create a flat surface for the pots.

When it comes to watering the citrus over the winter, I typically water once a week. If it's not super cold outside, I will just pop my hoselink retractable hose back on its stand and use it to water the plants. If it is really cold, then I will fill up old juice jugs in the sink that I keep in the garage to water the pots.

That's it! Once my last average frost has passed (usually April 1st) The trees go back outside. I have tried bringing my citrus trees indoors when they were smaller and they were so unhappy. They were in front of a sunny window and warm and toasty, and I thought they would be happy. Not so. They dropped all their leaves and barely survived. For some reason they prefer the garage.