That does look like an Omega graft. I have one of those tools in my grafting tool kit. But I have never had a successful graft with it. Where is that Malay Apple growing?

The malay apple tree is growing near University and Southgate. I think thats considered Tamarac. I'm not exactly sure though.

How many different things did you try the omega on? Is it easy to use? I have lost every single spanish lime graft i've done in a few different ways. Proabably about 20 trees. Maybe this is the only tree the omega graft works on lol.

I think I tried it on a few things.....mango, annonas, possibly others.....who remembers anymore. You are welcome to try my Omega graft tool to see if it'll work with spanish lime. I think I paid about $60 or $70 about 15 years ago. My conclusion after failing with it was that it was meant for use in temperate fruit tree grafting. However, that may have been a rationaliztion to cover for and explain my failures.

Harry,
I also have an omega tool, I think the only success I had was with loquat.
I am not sure why , I think one should have more success with it and of course they weren't cheep.

It's pretty easy to use. The problem is that although it makes a perfect cut on the root stock and scion, it is very difficult to bind the two because the length or I guess you'd say the depth of the cut surfaces is actually very short. Most of my successful grafts have occurred when I had long surfaces contacting each other between scion and rootstock. While the tool is easy to use, matching the right scion size to the right rootstock for maximizing the graft cut is the more tricky part.

I agree, Harry, makes sense. How is the weather there now?

We had some welcomed warmth today....very pleasant. Cold front coming shortly with the threat of freezing weather this weekend. They are even talking about the possibility of snow or sleet for North Florida and even upper Central Florida, perhaps as far south as Orlando.

Yikes! I never thought snow would be possible down into Orlando. Semms like I am dreaming. God I wish it was as warm in Ny as it is in FL! Still warmer where you guys are, and yes I know it is supposed to be but now it is 22 degrees and this cold is killing my back. Well I went to comp court yesterday and got the approval I needed from the Walmart insurance comnpany to go ahead with the back surgury. Hopefully I will back to normal soon. My poor garden suffered badly last year. I have about 4 dozen daffodils that never made it into the ground. Good luck with the weather this weekend!
Andrew

Orlando? Oh what fun, I will have to call my friend in Tarpon Springs and tease him about the weather, maybe he didn't need to move from NY.

I've read posts on several different forums concerning the Omega tool and there hasn't been a single positive comment about the product.

A guy on my grafting DVD recommended using a small caliper tool to measure the diameter of the scion and rootstock to get a better match. I use one to get me pretty close. Handy to have around actually.

Harry...could use some of that warm weather up here! Will drop down to single digits overnight for the next 2-3 days. Columbia Gas has put a gold star on my account.

Harry,
Thanks. As soon as the weather warms up i'd love to try your omega tool to graft with.

Jay,
I havent heard anything good about it either. I am still determined to figure out how to graft spanish lime though without an approach graft. Is it the CRFG DVD the one youre referring too? I think I remember one of the guys in that DVD recommending the caliper measuring tool. So far i've just been guessing and a lot of the times im off a little so I just tie the rubber band even tighter in hopes the right places touch.

Yes...I believe it is. I purchased it from Bob on the Yahoo group. I don't think he ever did get the Florida grafters DVD going did he?

Sheehan, were you able to experiment with this tool?

Has anyone else tried or had better luck with this device? I'd love nothing more than besting my mango grafting success rate (currently @ 0%).

Tim

I think I did use the tool at Harry's house on some mangosteen grafts. I can't remember exactly what we used it for though. All I remember is that nothing survived.

Spanish lime is excruciatingly difficult to graft. From what I've been told, a 10% rate of take is considered 'good' - and this is from a guy who's been doing it for many years. Grafted spanish lime trees should be really expensive, but the lack of demand has kept prices reasonable.

Jeff

Approach grafting the spanish lime seems to have a very high success rate. I think they grafted 8 or so using approach grafts at Excalibur and had 100% take. Around the same time they also tried grafting 50 spanish lime seedlings using other techniques such as cleft but only had about 5 trees survive.

OK. I've never heard of anybody doing approach on those, but it sounds like a good idea.

From what I've been told, cleft graft yields around 10% for a skilled grafter, so they are right on the money with 5/50.

Who knows how they're doing it in PR.

Jeff

I've used a friends Omega grafter on temperate trees and had moderate success. Long term issues included cleaning and sharpening. I had better success with a razor blade and wood plane. Plus I think tropicals take better with long cuts exposing lots of cambium as opposed to the more squat cut of the Omega.

Sheehan, do you remember the grafts at Montoso on the Rambutan? They cut the rootstock into a wedge shape and cut a cleft partway through the scion branch and bundled them together? If the graft did not take at least the scion survives. Wonder if it would work for Spanish lime?

-Ethan

Thanks for the reassurance gentlemen. I'll go practice with more cuttings - no more shaving :)

Tim