This winter brought unprecedented cold, and my fruit trees and garden were CRUSHED! Mountains of snow and record cold threated my citrus trees, avocado trees, fig trees and other cold sensitive fruit trees beyond anything they had ever experienced. There is good news: the brutal cold challenged my cold protection techniques beyond their limits, and the cold weather revealed citrus trees that can survive Zone 7 winters with ease, maybe even Zone 6 winters with protection. Join me on this garden tour and be amazed at how resilient these cold hardy tropical trees are!
After trees endure cold damage, it is important NOT to prune cold damage for about 2 months. Cold damaged trees are under stress, and pruning trees right after will cause even more stress. Proceed as normal like the cold damage didn’t happen, and give your trees irrigation and fertilizing on the same routine as a normal winter. The tree will need its strength to recover. Also, leaf drop a couple weeks after cold damage is a GOOD THING. That means the trees are alive and pushing off the old growth to make way for new growth. If a tree holds all its dead leaves several weeks after severe cold damage, that is indicative of death. Wait until the trees force new growth in spring to prune off dead branches.
• How To Protect Trees From Cold: https://youtu.be/rKeaOcXtubY?si=gbhJ1ZSxwTVdSkce
• Where To Get Pickle Barrels: https://youtu.be/Z1iMlKOpXDo?si=LSbexR5iq0w_ZQzi
I use the following products* for protecting and growing fruit trees:
Pruning Snips: https://amzlink.to/az0S6BULZGPmi
Japanese Bypass Pruning Shears: https://amzlink.to/az08Dzhs8BJ1x
Japanese Pull Saw: https://amzlink.to/az0JWVGhacoR2
Plant Jacket, 120″x120″, 1.5oz/yd (BIG, My Lila Avocado Size): https://amzlink.to/az0nSYzLzrSnw
Plant Jacket, 144″x96″, 1.5oz/yd (For Tall, Thinner Trees): https://amzlink.to/az0lT8GhSnnVI
Plant Jacket, 84″x84″, 1.5oz/yd (MED, My SugarBelle Size): https://amzlink.to/az00cUtRJMjzR
Plant Jacket, 72″x72″, 1.5oz/yd (Smaller Young Tree Size): https://amzlink.to/az0TpDgm3nADI
Plant Jacket 31″x39″, 1.77oz/yd (SMALL, My New Red Lime Size): https://amzlink.to/az0hO6vPM18V9
Extra Wide Row Cover, 1.5oz/yd, 16’x25′ (My Rear Citrus Hedge): https://amzlink.to/az0XjONPpoQhi
Thicker Row Cover, 1.5oz/yd, 10x30FT (My Raised Beds): https://amzlink.to/az09JmFkSWHQS
Extra Thick Row Cover, 2.0oz/yd, 10x30FT (My Raised Beds): https://amzlink.to/az0WeuiamzvcM
Watering Wand: https://amzlink.to/az0O3ZfEhftZ8
Weed Barrier: https://amzlink.to/az0yusYtZsmmk
Shade Cloth: https://amzlink.to/az01boLJy9JNI
Insect Netting: https://amzlink.to/az0H5tKMYxP2O
Alaska Fish Fertilizer [5-1-1] (Gallon): https://amzlink.to/az0Jhw8liNoe3
True Organic All Purpose Fertilizer [5-4-5]: https://amzlink.to/az0lVAel6Wss7
Espoma PlantTone [5-3-3] (36lb): https://amzlink.to/az0gylQKIH3hO
Espoma PlantTone [5-3-3] (50lb): https://amzlink.to/az0dh0dYaye1l
Espoma Bone Meal (10lb): https://amzlink.to/az0KAuCOZcPgQ
True Organic Blood Meal (3lbs): https://amzlink.to/az0jNeCruTl6a
Azomite Trace Minerals (44lb): https://amzlink.to/az0qPn4i34Eol
Jack’s All Purpose [20-20-20] (1.5lb): https://amzlink.to/az0JG0Dv6Da0h
Jack’s All Purpose [20-20-20] (25lb): https://amzlink.to/az0F6FgxdhKjO
Jack’s Blossom Booster [10-30-20] (25lb): https://amzlink.to/az08lv7ZJFnUu
• Full Amazon Store: https://amzlink.to/az0yli4Cz0iXX
TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 We Got CRUSHED!
0:52 Winter 2026 Brings Massive Cold Damage
2:31 Rear Property Citrus Trees And Avocado Trees
9:18 Front Yard Citrus Trees
12:38 Owari Satsuma, Leaf Drop And When To Prune
15:26 My Oldest Avocado Tree And Lemon Tree
18:00 This Citrus Tree Is ZONE 7 COLD HARDY!
20:16 4 Incredibly Cold Hardy Citrus Varieties
21:09 Fig Trees And Cold Damage
22:13 Key Takeaways & Where To Buy Citrus Trees
24:53 Adventures With Dale
If you have any questions about zone pushing and growing cold sensitive fruit trees, how to grow a vegetable garden at home, how to grow fruit trees or the things I grow in my raised bed vegetable garden and edible landscaping food forest, please ask in the Comments below!
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MY WEBSITE
https://www.themillennialgardener.com/
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VISIT MY AMAZON STORE FOR PRODUCTS I USE MOST OFTEN IN MY GARDEN*
https://amzlink.to/az0yli4Cz0iXX
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CUSTOM MERCH!
https://shop.spreadshirt.com/themillennialgardener
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SUBSCRIBE TO MY 2ND CHANNEL!
https://www.youtube.com/c/2MinuteGardenTips
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SOCIAL MEDIA
→ INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/millennialgardener/
→ X (@NCGardening) https://x.com/NCGardening
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ABOUT MY GARDEN
Location: Southeastern NC, Brunswick County (Wilmington area)
Zone 8B, 34.1°N Latitude
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*As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
© The Millennial Gardener
#gardening #garden #gardentour #fruittree #fruittrees
21 Comments
Were any of your plants damaged in the cold this winter? Let us know in the Comments. TIMESTAMPS here:
0:00 We Got CRUSHED!
0:52 Winter 2026 Brings Massive Cold Damage
2:31 Rear Property Citrus Trees And Avocado Trees
9:18 Front Yard Citrus Trees
12:38 Owari Satsuma, Leaf Drop And When To Prune
15:26 My Oldest Avocado Tree And Lemon Tree
18:00 This Citrus Tree Is ZONE 7 COLD HARDY!
20:16 4 Incredibly Cold Hardy Citrus Varieties
21:09 Fig Trees And Cold Damage
22:13 Key Takeaways & Where To Buy Citrus Trees
24:53 Adventures With Dale
FWIW, I used 3/4 inch conduit and Maker Pipe connectors for my frames so could slide the agfabric over the frame easier without worrying about the fabric being as easily torn from pulling agfabric over thorny trees.
My husband works in the field of construction/remodeling, and THOSE GUYS RUN CORDS FOR MILES!
Running an electrical cord from the house to those trees along the fence would have been easy, but expensive, but not as expensive as losing those trees.
Hi, how often do you rain in winter? DO you get snow or frost? Can i get your city name & state so that I can look at the temperature pattern on weather channel?
I loved this amazing video! Thanks for sharing!
Sadomasochism: Trying to grow an avocado tree in South Carolina.
Do you do any in-person visits in the area? We are located just south of you near Bolivia, NC. Would love to have you come to our area to talk about your channel and gardening challenges.
Those lightbulbs were absolutely genius!!
D-ARPA weather machine out of control. 😂
All my pepper plants got hit hard in my garage inside a greehouse. Only the citrus made it, now its about to get cold again.
Im so envious, my meyer lemon barely survived here in Texas with a green house, blankets, mulch, and xmas lights 😭
Wow i need to watch this one. I had a lemon tree and this hard freeze did so much damage to it.
We haven’t gotten very many sunny days. Even when it was nice out it has been mostly cloudy.
May I ask u, what all u exactly DID to keep the avocado stewart tree like 5 to 7 years old 27.1 degrees n 9 degree outside weather. That's 20 degrees different. N I ain't see no greenhouse haha…?
I'm curious how your banana trees are doing
Good to know!!
Good info, loved the temperature charts. Same problem here at 2,200 ft elevation in CA foothills, except we stayed double digits, however power was out for 4 days and only had enough juice for the greenhouse and mangos. The snow, a little melt then hard freeze broke lots of branches on many uncovered/unpruned trees. Only trees that I've lost are the mangos, but those were due to recent gopher activity. Unprotected loquat 2/3 year old did fine after I removed the ice/snow so they weren't bent over to the ground. I think my bamboo actually liked the snow and ice. Bananas, well, saved the pseudo, but need all new leaves (as expected)
Think I'll be investing in 50 barrels this year to help salve my nerves during next winter.
Again, that's for the analytics. Keep it up.
Your protection method does make sense in a climate like yours. Sun during the day is the key here. I live in a warm region of Austria – Zone 7B/8A. But your protection method would not work for me, because we have a lot of fogy and cloudy Days here in the winter – so the water Barrel would not warm up enough during the day – night temperatures rarely droping down further than 9°F. I built a foliage house which i can dissesamble – have water barrels in it and an electric heater which holds temperature over 25°F during cold nights.
i have Thomasville and two Yuzumelos (Yuzu Nr.3 which is an extremly coldhardy french selection crossed with a swingle citrumelo) and some unprotected palm trees and figs – which do really fine here at the feet of the alps 😀
Greetings from Austria – cool channel!
One of the things I like about your channel is that you are in the same zone as I am. Admittedly, my central coastal California weather is very wet with snow only happening 1 in 10 years even though we run almost 2 months at 19-20 F. And my summer humidity is usually under 65%. Although we've hit 116 F a few times, we usually peak out around 113 for a few days in summer with the rest of the summer ranging between 100-111 F for 3-4 months. But, watching channels which share my climate zone is helpful for me as I grow my gardens and food forest.
Thank you for your videos. I have found quite a few to be just what I needed at the time.
I have lived in Virginia for 40 years and this was the worst winter I can remember. We lost a lot of plants in our sun room.
nice warm up