North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>]

Betsy,  Yuzu is pleasant, as described.  It probably really won't take temps 
much below 10 F, as described.  It will ripen it's fruit even at 42 degrees 
north in Japan, which is a lot cooler than NC.   However, your big problem 
is that like us over in TN, you have fluctuating winter temps.  In Japan the 
temp is likely to go down and stay down for the winter.  If it goes up and 
down, the tree could be caught by a cold snap following weeks of warm 
weather.  This is a problem for citrus in general in our continental 
climate.  I suggest once you get your tree, you consider doing things to 
minimize this problem.  For example, trim it to bush form so you can cover 
it if necessary.  Definitely make some more grafts, using trifoliate orange 
for rootstock, and bud very low or do root grafts so that you can heap dirt 
over the graft union when cold weather threatens.  If you can save the 
graft, you can have fruit again in a couple of years after a bad winter. 
This is standard practice for young citrus groves in Florida.
   The one other thing you need to know about citrus in general, and Yuzu 
in particular, is that seed grown trees take forever to crop.  Yuzu is one 
of the worst, taking about 15 years to start cropping from seed.  Get a nice 
budded tree to start with.  Surely Stan McKenzie, Stan the Citrus Man, has 
Yuzus.    Donna