Has anyone grafted many citrus onto one tree?
Since there is a thing called grafting and I live in a sub division, space is at a premium.
The most cold hardy citrus are satsuma, kumquat, and lime (I have a small key lime. This is what I’ve read. Good to perhaps 20°F on a mature tree).
Just watched a cooking YouTube vid with Filipino food they use calamansi in a lot of their food. I read that calemansi is a Kumquat and perhaps mandarin hybrid with a unique flavor used in cooking.
So thinking of buying a Satsuma as the base tree and grafting kumquat, lime, lemon, and calemansi.
Would take care of cooking needs and. Some eating as I like kumquats for fresh eating and salads/salsas.
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In my experience observing multi-grafted Citrus for decades, putting the same type (e.g. mandarin cultivars) on one rootstock can be ok. Putting multiple types (e.g., an orange, lemon, lime, …) is not recommended because over time one will dominate and the others will suffer.
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A pruning nightmare perhaps. Still it light be fun.
You misunderstood. No amount of pruning will keep the most vigorous of the types from robbing resources from the others. And if you do remove the most vigorous then the next in order will dominate.
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Makes sense. I’m sure the Satsuma would dominate. It might work with just the kumquat, calamansi, and key lime. They all appear to be less vigorous growers.
Still, might be fun to experiment.
The most vigorous of them will dominate.
Until it’s not.
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Satsumas do well in your climate and there are many yards in south Louisiana that have them. They can generally withstand the winters there, although even they struggle during the rare deep freeze without protection. Limes are not as cold hard though. I believe key lime is even less tolerant of cold so I wouldn’t plan on having one in ground without protection most winters.
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Satsumas are only grown commercially quite a ways south of me… ‘quite a ways’ being a relative term.
There is only one large citrus in my small neighborhood and it’s made it through the mid teens… At least it didn’t die but died back some.
I’m perfectly fine with eventually losing something I had no reasonable expectation of being a ‘forever’ plant or tree. I could plant a Satsuma and have it last for 5 or 10 years… Or it could die the first winter. It is what it is.
The good thing about citrus is you usually get fruit right away the first year unless you buy a really young tree. Of course for the health of a transplant tree should remove most if not all the first year fruit. I will usually keep a handful within reason for the size of the tree and how it grew that first year.
The attraction of the smaller citrus like lemon, lime, and calamansi is they can really be used for a longer period of time as you aren’t usually waiting for full ripeness to develop sugars. You are using them in marinades, soups, and such.
Kumquat also has a longer harvest time as the fruit is so small you can often pick ripe fruit from mid summer until early winter or beyond.
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