I ran across a good deal on 3 gallon size Assads Semi-Dwarf Citron Trees and I bought 5
Not knowing what I was going to do with Citrons I went about grafting 20 different Citrus varieties to them including
Frost Valencia
Shirokolistvennyi Satsuma
Clemenules Clemintina
Frost Owari Satsuma
Sue Linda Temple Tangor
Torroco #7 Blood Orange
Cara Cara Navel
Skaggs Bonanza Navel
Nippon Orangequat
Iyo Mikan Tangor
Rio Grand Navel
Mato Buntan Pummelo
Mexican Lime
And
Millsweet Limetta
Just found this unfinished post I had started and never posted. Hope I didn’t ‘say this stuff’ somewhere else. I apologize if it’s repetitive. I’ll just blame it on the HEAT!
My apple and pear grafts are doing well - but this week I lost a ‘Sweet 16’ that was on my King David apple. I have others - so it was not a big deal. Looking forward to see what happens through this winter - and pruning to train surviving grafts.
My Toka and Santa Rosa plum trees are hosting their grafts well . . . but neither one of the trees produced any viable fruit. Puny, chewed and diseased - all little fruits met their end before reaching a decent size. I don’t think that those varieties are a good fit for my area . . . in spite of what all the nurseries say. My Metheley does well. And I’m interested to see if the grafts of Shiro and Superior and Damson and a couple of others will ‘stick’ and produce anything. ? I think this coming ‘grafting season’ I will majorly overhaul the Toka and Santa Rosa - and FrankenPlum them.
The few grafts that took on my peaches and nectarines are doing ‘OK’. Elberta, for one - looks very good.
I did these grafts about two weeks ago, they are cold hardy avocado cultivars (mostly Poncho, last one Aravaipa) grafted on Bacon and Sharwil seedlings:
Looks like they are all still alive at least! The branch where I cut the Aravaipa scion has pushed lots of new growth after being stuck in the shaded greenhouse for the heatwave (max was 106°F in the greenhouse):
Very nice. I’m also slowly building up my citrus varieties list but with many failures the progress has been slow - not to mention the CCPP costs add up. Finally, this year I had good success. Thanks to @ramv I tried buddy tape and W/T and bark (instead of cleft) and that might have made the difference. This year, I see pushing growth on
Jincheng on C-35 (rootstock growth on my pomelo tree)
Minneola Tangelo on Tango
Super Nova on Gold Nugget
Xie Shan on Owari Satsuma (3rd attempt )
Nordmann seedless kumquat and Indio Mandarinquat on Meyer lemon
Valentine pomelo on Oro Blanco
I want to try some pigmented oranges next. Most of them won’t sweeten/color up in our coastal mild weather, but I’m planning to experiment with Moro, Smith Red and Boukhobza
Any more than one, you could make another tree. I think most of my pawpaw grafts had only one bud and have taken. When I say most, I have over 50% pushing growth at this point which I think is pretty good for a first year try.
@thecityman@jcguarneri@don1357
hi Ryan!
I know. one bud!!
congrats!
I stopped using toilet bowl wax and I’m switched over to parafilm. Below are reasons.
Not so rosy here.
All grafts describe below we’re done with dormant winter scions.
May 20…Of the scions you gave me none have started to grow and the five that I started the same time only 2 showing signs of life.
may 26…grafted more of my own scions with wax… nothing.
June 10…4 scions grafted with parafilm,.all took with bud swell in 13 days.
June 23 parafilm 2 whip and tongue, 2 chip, 2 T…will update you in several days. so far looks promising.
So far then, it seems the grafts done with toilet wax failed but the ones done a few weeks later with parafilm worked.
Never a problem using the wax on apples pears plums peaches or persimmons, but I think it’s not compatible with the paws. Plus messy!
But any T grafts (mostly apples) I’ve attempted have all failed. I think the wax which only covered the bud had some mortal, deathly consequences. (comments anyone?). the rest of T fastened down with elec tape.
So I’ll not use wax anymore. not for anything. your warning a few months ago was correct!
Learning experience, but sad. At least so far, I lost all the scions you gave me, but appreciate your effort.
As an aside, a few days ago, I dug up 2 paw shoots a few feet from mother tree. About 18" tall.
Surprised how much of root ball, with many root hairs. No sign of taproot. I guess taproots not on off shoots from mother plant. Planted in lots of temp shade.
Happy 4th!
Always good to hear from a Pittsburgh metro person!
Despite each bud having been eating completely down by deer, the scions are now putting on new growth. I’m glad that I did not have to wait until next year to see if they would regrow.
Congrats! When did you graft it? Why did you choose inverted T graft?
My yuzu to Flying Dragon seedling T-Buds last year didn’t work. But my whip and tongue Shangjuan Lemon to the same, did. They waited for hot weather to start growing though.
I stopped ordering bud wood from CCPP because I realized that, for a ;little more money, I could get a tree for the price they charge for budwood. It costs $15 for a cutting, $25 for shipping and $12 for phytosanitary certificate for a total of $52. An entry size tree from Four Winds Nursery is $32 plus $19 shipping for total of $51. Of course, ordering more cuttings is more cost effective but I am willing to pay the additional $ to get a tree instead of a cutting.
I wish there was some less expensive way of getting citrus cuttings. I am only aware of one vendor that sells citrus cuttings but their selection is extremely limited.
About 5 weeks ago. I could have forced it earlier but waited for a heat spell to pass. I chose inverted T because I water overhead at times and I think this technique is better if you want the water to drain out.
Graft binded with just parafilm. The scion and stock were slightly larger than a toothpick. I put about three layers of parafilm at the connection and to my surprise the graft survived and has grown about a 1’. This is a scion from a control pollination of Korean Giant and Moonglow hybrid.
For some reason my budding has a very low survival rate. I pretty much only do cleft grafts and have a very good survival rate using temflex, parafilm and or rubber band combinations. I actually have as good of results as I have with plums and apples. lol
Same rate as plums and apples is close to 100% as I don’t even want to have backup grafts for those. It took me a while (and CCPP $$) to get a hang of citrus. It could also be because my rootstocks are quite young themselves.
I use clefts almost exclusively for other species, regardless of size difference. For citrus, of the couple of clefts that succeeded (out of probably 15), I noticed that they don’t heel well even after months of scion growth. That made me wonder if clefts with just two points of cambium contact is not enough.
@disc4tw@thecityman@jcguarneri@DennisD@don1357
Ryan:
update on the 2 whip and tongue paw paws with parafilm done June 23, as previously texted. Scions from dormant wood taken winter time.
Both are showing significant bud swell. So like the grafts done June 10th, 13 days is magic number for bud swell.
No bud T or bud action yet…done also June 23rd.
Conclusion so far, reinforces thought of not using toilet wax, and late June grafting with dormant scions still ok.
So far paw paw grafting pretty straightforward when using parafilm and whip and tongue or clefts, compared to my almost 100% complete failure with Wax.
wish I could do over all those variety of scions you gave me a couple months ago.
)
