What's your opinion of this citrus graft?

9 years ago

I recently bought some plants from an online nursery. One of them was a standard Meyer lemon. When I received it I contacted the company and told them I thought it was substandard. I emailed them some photos. What concerned me most was what appears to me to be a sloppy graft of the lemon onto the rootstock. The rootstock was cut not long ago as evidenced by the lack of callousing or overgrowth over the cut. It looks to me that the rootstock was growing alongside the lemon graft for quite a while before it was trimmed. I've always thought that the graft onto rootstock for nursery stock was done when the rootstock was small, then the graft was allowed to completely take over and grow without competition from the rootstock. The nursery said there was nothing wrong with the plant but they would take it back. Here is the photo, is this acceptable? I was mostly afraid that the lateral growth of the graft would make a weak trunk as the tree grew.

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Comments (2)

gregbradley
9 years ago
That looks exactly like the graft on a Meyer Lemon Standard that I bought about a year ago from an online nursery. Even the color codes of the rootstock and scion match your tree. I thought is looked a bit substandard at the time compared to the other citrus that came in the same order, which came from Durling.

A year later and it is doing great and the graft looks much less strange. I assume it will look completely normal in a couple more years.

I think it will be fine but I know I have become much more picky about knowing the nursery that grafted the tree and other info about the trees.
johnmerr
9 years ago
Opinions are subjective; they are not necessarily truths.

In my nursery (Meyer lemons on Macrophylla rootstock), we would prune off the top of the rootstock as soon as the bud/scion begins to sprout. Other growers like to leave the rootstock and the scion to grow side by side and only cut the rootstock near the time they are going to sell the tree.
You are right in your assumption that the rootstock has been recently pruned away. In a couple of years you may not see any difference. IMHO what you have is not grounds for replacement; but it is good to know the seller is willing to replace it if you are unhappy.
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