Grafting other sour citrus onto my Eureka Lemon?

General Fruit Growing
#1

I’d love to have a little production of calamansi, chinotto, and/or seville orange. Assuming that I can locate some budwood, would there be any problems with trying to graft some of these onto my eureka lemon (on semi-dwarfing rootstock)?

#2

I suspect most citrus will graft ok to it though you may have long term viability issues, just don’t try grafting Kumquat or Limes to it.

#3

Wasn’t planning to, but you’ve piqued my curiosity. Why not?

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#4

Both Limes and Kumquats can be more picky about root stock compatibility than most other types of citrus. I know of one study that showed 100% failure of Kumquat within a year when grafted to trifoliate root stocks. Of course Eureka Lemon is not a trifoliate root stock, and they may do fine, as a bit more research shows that Eureka Lemon itself is only partly compatible with trifoliate root stocks with likely decline and failure after 10-15 years.

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#5

I “T” budded 4 kumquat buds to a rough lemon tree (Citrus jambhiri) about 18 months ago. All branches doing great so far. I’d give any citrus a try on Eureka, even knowing that it may not work. If it works out you will have a one of a kind tree in your collection!

Kumquat inverted “T” bud on rough lemon:

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#6

Thanks all. I’ll start asking around for budwood, but in the meantime I just bought some Seville oranges at the market (making some marmalade) and, man, do they have a lot of seeds! If I plant them, am I likely to get a Seville orange plant, or some random hybrid? Any tips on grafting from a seedling onto a mature citrus tree?

#7

Chances are high that they will grow true to type

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#8

It’s my understanding that quite a lot of the Seville Sour Orange grown (at least in AZ and CA) is from seed. They net the trees when flowering to keep it 100% sour orange, but still.

#9

Why not Washington Navel? 100% seedless and very sweet and juicy.

#10

“100% failure of Kumquat within a year when grafted to trifoliate”

I guess my nordman seedless kumquat of 5 years didn’t read that study

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#11

Oh, I love a ripe, sweet Washington Navel, but I don’t get enough heat for them to develop well here; the ones I get at the store are better than any that I could grow.