HELP! Has anybody had success keeping calamansi, or any citrus tree, alive outside in the winter in zone 6a? – Reddit Post

For the last few years I’ve been able to keep this tree in storage over winter at a local nursery. Apparently this year they don’t have room for it. I was caught off guard by this so I hadn’t put a plan b in place, so now I’m faced with keeping this alive through winter.

I do not have the space nor sun exposure to keep it indoors and neither do my friends, family, or colleagues. I wouldn’t want to burden any of them anyway.

So I’m looking to see if anyone else has been in this scenario. How did you winterize the plant to survive the cold? Did it survive the cold?

My plan is to use a seedling heat pad under the pot and wrap the pot in a thermal wrapping. Not pictured here is a square wooden frame that the pot sits in that’s used to keep the tree from toppling over in high winds. I plan to pack the frame with straw or some kind of insulation. The tree will be positioned in a location with lots of sun.

Calamansi are known to be hardy surviving in temperatures as low as 20 degrees, but winter will surely get colder here. When temps dip below 30 for periods of time, I plan to bring the tree into a small corridor overnight to be put back into the sun the following day or whenever the temperature rises a bit.

What do you think? Any and all advice is appreciated. I’d hate to lose this tree.