With temperatures looking to hit right around freezing tonight, it’s time to bring some of your garden activities indoors. Since Texas climate suffers from what I like to call an “identity crisis”, many crops are still putting on ripening fruit just the first frosts hit. Fall tomatoes are often still green right about now and your pepper plants should be weighed down with abundance. But it’s time to gather them all up. Got basil? Better harvest it all for winter pesto while you still can.
Your citrus plants, if you grow them, will just now be starting to ripen. Meyer lemons will be turning their signature bright yellow and satsumas turning to shades of orange. That means you’ll need to cover your potted specimens outdoors during a light frost like we’ll have tonight or bring the plants indoors if you want to be on the safe side.
Keeping fruiting citrus indoors this time of year can be a little tricky. Frankly, they’re meant to be outdoors and perform much better when left there. Citrus need bright light and they’ll often experience a transition to much lower light conditions when you bring them indoors. With the drier warmer air indoors, plants will also dry out much faster—you can quickly lose your entire harvest of fruit if you’re not careful. Plants will also often start to re-flower again for their next fruit set. So you’ll want to be careful to also preserve the blooms with proper care.
If we’re going to have a hard freeze in the mid-twenties, I’ll bring my citrus indoors, then put them back outdoors when it warms up again. However, if you have large specimens moving them in and out can prove difficult. So, if you plan to move your citrus indoors for the rest of winter, be prepared to baby them. Set up a grow light for them and check soil moisture regularly.
