Nice looking trees. My cara caras don't have thorns; could those shoots be coming from below the graft line?

the graft is about 3 inches below the lowest branch.

most of those branches are new growth from just a few weeks ago.

Okay, it's your tree... you should know; but I will say again, of my 8 cara cara trees, not one has a thorn. If it were my tree, I think I would cut off all those new branches that have thorns.

There is another possiblilty... in many grafted trees there may be more than one "graft" line; some may have an internode; i.e. a variety grafted/budded onto the rootstock; and later, the final variety grafted onto the internode variety. It has to do with compatibility in some cases; in others it is simply a decision to change what has already been grafted for a preferred scion. Google internode, and you may get a better explanation than what I can give you.

Whatever the explanation, don't over analyze it; the branches coming from the bottom of your tree with thorns are NOT cara cara; so if you want a cara cara tree, cut them off...it's a no brainer.

Cara Cara DOES in fact have thorns.

See UCR ID card for Cara Cara here: http://idtools.org/id/citrus/citrusid/factsheet.php?name=Cara+Cara

Best,

Skinn30a

This post was edited by skinn30a on Tue, Mar 19, 13 at 20:45

Please note I am not expert in Cara Cara; but none of my cara cara trees, nor any I have ever seen have thorns. Perhaps some cultivars may have thorns, who knows, who cares; if it were my tree, I would cut off any branches with thorns; because if you know the history origin of the cultivar/variety, neither the parents nor the CC cultivar have thorns. Go figger.

Cara Cara is believed to be either a mutation of the Washington navel or to have developed as a cross between the Washington navel and the Brazilian Bahia navel. Both Washington Navel and Brazilian Bahia navel have thorns...