Awesome! I hope you can produce a lot of them.

How in the world did you do that Dave???

Great work..Very proud on one that can accomplish a feat like this. Just amazing:-)

MIke

Well done, Dave. Let us know how this progresses.

Patty S.

Dave, looks great! How are the rooted cuttings working? If I were to ever try one here, I would have to go w/ a rooted cutting from mature budwood. I don't have space to let a seedling grow out to maturity and being in a 6b/borderline 7a area I would likely have to contend with the potential for significant die back in cold years.

Thanks all.

Mike: So far I had only one of ten bud grafts sprout on me.

Scott: I also have five rooted cuttings that I'll be growing up in pots for a few years before I plant them out. I'm a little concerned about the dieback on this bud graft shoot, so I have the rooted cuttings as a backup.

great job Dave. Congrats!

Mike

Double post, sorry. its all gardenwebs fault.
Mike

This post was edited by mksmth on Wed, Aug 7, 13 at 10:07

Beautiful graft. it looks strong and healthy. Could you post pics as it goes into fall.

Good luck

Mike: Thanks!

Poncirusguy: I'll try to remember to document the progress.

From what I have read about grafting, they recommend harvesting the graft stock at a different time than is ideal for performing the graft...I think I recall when the sap is flowing back down and the bark will peel back easily? Maybe this is not the case when bud grafting. I have several types of citrus trees planted in my yard and would like to do some grafting. Is there a time of year here in SE Texas when I can cut a bud and insert immediately to the host tree? I would like to graft some buds from a blood orange and possibly a lime that has never fruited into an immature calamondin. The calamondin is probably eight feet tall but it's never bloomed and is still awfully thorny. It's my hope that I can get the lime and the blood orange to perform better on the calamondin roots.

johnorange,

HOpe someone from your region responds. YOu might be best to start a new thread with your question.

If I were to do this over again, I would harvest the scion budwood earlier -- well BEFORE the plants start their first flush of growth. Up here in the frigid Mid-Atlantic, this first flush is usually in May, so I would harvest the budwood about 3 or 4 weeks prior - early April maybe - and just keep it in the fridge.

This assures that you will find lots of good unsprouted buds to choose from - because once the trees flush, there aren't as many unsprouted buds to choose from. Then keep this budwood in the crisper of your fridge in a sealed plastic bag with some damp paper towels. I lightly sprayed them with a very weak bleach solution too. The wood should last up to two months in there.

Then as soon as your bark is slipping -- whenever that is in your climate, you'll have your good budwood supply ready to go.

Hindsight is 20/20. I guess that's how you learn. Nothing I read about budgrafting said anything about this!

Dave,

Just saw your grafted bud! How exciting and gratifying, to be able to produce such a nice and healthy graft. What I don't understand is where do you find the root stock? Can you use any plant? Please forgive my very stupid question, I'm really trying to learn. I know about grafting roses, but that is rose on a rose. My citrus are all in containers.

Thanks again, for any answers,

Soussan.

Soussan,

You can use any citrus for the rootstock. Or you can use hardy trifoliate - or any citrus-trifoliate hybrids.

I'm using citrumelo, which is a hybrid between hardy trifoliate and grapefruit. I have two in my yard and each are about 13 feet high. It has not bloomed or bore fruit yet and it's about 7 years old. Likely the fruit will not be very good, so I'm grafting better tasting varieties on to it.

Very nice work! Anything climate zone pushing with citrus is worthwhile work.

I have been wondering about cutting and budding dates as well.

The Citrus Clonal Protection Program cutting dates are Sept. 1 through Nov. 1st. (see link)

But I don't think bud grafting really begins till spring. So i guess budwood is kept in the fridge?

I have an overgrown mandarin (?) that produces poor fruit i want to completely work over this year.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://ccpp.ucr.edu/budwood/cutdates.php

dave_in_nova

It sounds like you are going to :top graft" I have never seen that can you explaine the process . I have a triple trunk poncirus trifoliata 3+ feet tall with about a 3 foot spreed I would like to graft nagami kumquat to it to serve as inter stock for my meiwa kumquats.

{{gwi:606325}}
Poncirus trifoliata to be grafted. Curently all my attepts have failed

Thank steve

yukkuri_kame:

I have no idea on dates for grafting in warmer zones. CAn't comment. Yes, budwood can be stored in the fridge for several months.

Steve:

I think you are refering to 'top working'? Officially, that is when you are completely reworking the tree top from one variety to another, so I guess I am not officially top-working as I want to preserve at least a few branches of the rootstock.

Anyway, in top working, there are numerous graft types that work -- including bark grafting, cleft grafting, and bud grafting.

That looks like a nice healthy trifoliate you have. I would wait until the branches are at least pencil thickness before grafting onto it.