I'm wanting to plant a few citrus trees (Orange, Lime, Lemon, and something else fun) at our new place in Houston. I more than likely will use the fruit to juice. What particular varieties have the best luck in Houston. Where can I start looking to buy or get cuttings?

I am not for sure, but I don't think you are going to find citrus that will stand up to the temperatures you have in Houston. Most are very sensitive to below freezing temperatures. You might call the Ag Extension Center in Weslaco here in the Valley. They do extensive work with Citrus.

Pretty much any of the ones at Houston garden center.

So my advice is go browse there and then look around for options to buy, if you can't find any, but theirs.

Fort Bend Master Gardners club is having a fruit tree sale on Feb 9th that will have trees that do well in this climate.

https://fbmg.org/events/annual-sales/fruit-citrus-tree-sale/

I have two orange trees that need to go. Don't know how big is too big to transfer though.

Satsuma Mandarin's are the most cold tolerant. I planted 3 about 6 years ago and all are doing pretty well and have fruited every year. I do protect them for hard freezes with blankets, watering and christmas lights.

We have a Satsuma or orange tree in our front yard that gives more fruit than we know what to do with. Freeze so far hasn't impacted it.

Harris County is a quarantined citrus zone

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I have a grapefruit/orange hybrid in my yard and my neighbor has a huge ruby red that is normally spectacular but had an off year. (The freeze cause it to set more fruit than the tree could support, so it is underdeveloped.) These larger sizes have done well but there are Meyer's all over the neighborhood. If starting from scratch, I'd go with the Meyers or something else a little sweet. Just be prepared for leaf miners.

Oh, and keep in mind that you want to prune this as an orchard in order to pick the fruit.

oldvalleyrat said:

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I am not for sure, but I don't think you are going to find citrus that will stand up to the temperatures you have in Houston. Most are very sensitive to below freezing temperatures. You might call the Ag Extension Center in Weslaco here in the Valley. They do extensive work with Citrus.

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We have an orange tree and gets hundreds of oranges every year.

oldvalleyrat said:

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I am not for sure, but I don't think you are going to find citrus that will stand up to the temperatures you have in Houston. Most are very sensitive to below freezing temperatures. You might call the Ag Extension Center in Weslaco here in the Valley. They do extensive work with Citrus.

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My BIL lives in Sugar Land and has a plethora of lemons, oranges and grapefruit

Harris county fruit tree sale is this Saturday(Jan 26)

This guy might have some answers. He's in Brazoria County:

Citrus trees

Go to the urban harvest website, they have a lot of resources there. There is a book that I would say is indispensable for citrus trees and other gardening in Houston. I think it is called year-round fruits and vegetables, by Dr. Bob Randall. You can buy it online but it is kind of expensive, they usually have it in stock at Buchanan's in the Heights.