So I got a 5g M. Californica for rootstock yesterday and I was about to take a nice branch from the top of my Yangmei tree but when I cut it back I noticed it was deadwood. Now I’m left with tiny(very tiny) green branches as shown or I can cut the branch down more and try to use that wood maybe about 1/2”. Anyone have luck grafting little tiny branches like that? Or advice what’s worked for you?
I still see it dead about 2” below the cut and spreading up the top branch so I feel maybe I should remove that as well. I’m not sure if the top tree is dying from a disease or from the heavy wet clay soil or RKN? The roots look fairly healthy besides a few galls. Shown below.
After up potting from a heavy clay is soil into a light fluffy mix with great drainage and warm temps around the corner which both should be in the favor of RKN thriving given those conditions i’m worried about the tree drying before I can get some grafts onto the M. Californica.
Yes, you can graft the yangmei scion onto small branches as you show. I have graft my yangmei that were about 1/8" and it takes, but you do have to baby it for about 6 months or it may fail. My problem I had when I grafted some yangmei on m.californica was that the entire rootstock would randomly die after 6months to a year. Even my other 1 gallon m.californica that did not have any grafts on it. So this year I changed my plan of attack and bought one very large m.californica in 10 gallon pot so it should not die on me. I’m getting many yangmei trees for our 2025 group order this month so I hope it works.
Thanks George. I didn’t want to tag and bother people and I figure not many grow this fruit so appreciate the info. I have a Biqi supposedly grafted onto a male although of course I don’t know yet what the male is or when it flowers. I tried registering over there at TFF but it takes a while apparently.
That’s interesting about the rootstock dying sorry to hear after the time and work thats never fun. I’m almost wondering if I should plant mine in ground for now. Here’s mine in a 5g. They unfortunately trimmed the tops for transport I assume because they were all chopped the same height.
Here’s the tiny Biqi with a chopstick for size reference. So you think those small green branches will be ok to graft? I guess just a cleft or T&G? Also noticed some black growing on the stem now. It’s been pretty wet and windy.
Yes, it will work. Good to graft a few scions in case your yangmei tree dies. If you read the huge post on the TFF, you would see that a majority of the people’s tree died after 6 month to a year. But this year should be better since the nursery will pack them differently and get the photo cert as before and go through the proper channels to get it in the US. I really didn’t pay much attention to my plants afer I saw the graft take. But this time I will give it some TLC. The fruits are good, but nothing exciting. My loquat fruits tastes much better than a yangmei fruit any day. So I focus on my 113 loquat varieties instead. No cuttings of loquat for sale in case someone reads this.
This is off topic, but I found a seedless cocktail avocado tree that has 100% seedless fruits so I’m working on that project to share it with some people.
I’m happy to have found a thriving community of yangmei growers who seem to be having good success in my area with lots of varieties. It is nice to see that this species is getting popular.
Sharing scionwood and getting new varieties should become easier and easier.
That’s a lot I didn’t even know there was that many varieties. There’s one down the street planted by a Hawaiian lady many years ago that’s very good. I don’t know what it is but it’s better than many others I’ve tasted.
Is your cocktail avocado similar to a cuke? Or a sport? I understand if that info isn’t released yet sounds like a great project.
@ramv yes! One reason I started that other post Why no Yangmei was wishful thinking to get other people or nurseries to get busy. I know there’s a big market for Yangmei and it’s not going away. Let me know if you ever get cuttings
I want to start with saying i have 0 experiance with yangmei. So if what im suggesting here is a bad idea, p[lease correct me. (i clicked this topic because i was curious what kind of fruit Yangmei was)
But if your grafting with a large size mismatch, my mind goes to chip budding.
This topic is about how to chip bud with large size mismatch between graft wood and rootstock.
Your post and link you shared is really something I didn’t know you can do bud chip with such a small chip. I started out bud chipping on figs but always match the chip to the rootstock have ever seen that before thanks for sharing Oscar. Another tool to use.
I don’t know if chip grafting will work with yangmei, but nice information. Should work fine for apple and stone fruit, but not sure if citrus, lychee and longan will work like this. Have you tried it on tropical guava?
i suspect it will work. There is no fundamental difference between chip bud graft and other grafts.
But i I’m mostly in zone 7. And thus not growing a lot of tropicals. I have successfully chip budded on figs and grapes but that wasn’t with super thin scions. (apples pears etc with thinner scions).
anyway i just thought I’d suggest the method since it seems you need to graft with super thin scions.
I suspect it might give slightly better results than some other grafts (splice, cleft) since with this chip bud technique, you can graft below a bud on the rootstock. Thus there is sapflow to that rootstock bud above and hormones coming down from that bud passing the chip bud graft.
The graft is not the top/highest point. And thus this slows dieback. (with most plants a “stump” without a bud does not draw sapflow to heal and thus dies back to the bud below after a while.)
This is more conjecture though. I have no scientific proof for this statement.
again i have no experience with yangmei. So see this more as a suggestion of something you could try. Than as advice of something proven to work.
Another advantage of chip bud grafts is that it is a “side” graft. You can cleft of splice graft the top of the rootstock. And place a chip bud graft lower on the same rootstock with spare thin scions. And thus spread your chances of success
Citrus works great like this, I’ve done several myself. One way I did it which I saw Madison citrus nursery gave me the idea. I chip budded low on my in ground trifoliate rootstock, then waited a couple weeks. Then I bent the rootstock down with a log on it so the apical dominance wouldn’t overpower the bud point. After the chip popped through the buddy tape I cut it off an inch or so above the graft. Now it’s a couple feet tall, would be much taller but I put two chip buds on it and didn’t remove either haha. Figured I’d want a bushy Clementine so I left both.
I think chip buds wouldn’t work with sapodilla due to the sap flooding the bud most likely. But maybe Yangmei it can work, definitely worth trying.
Have you ever chip budded loquat @george ? Loquat doesn’t have typical buds so I can’t even see how that could work, but it grafts easily enough with clefts just curious since you have vast experience with loquats. Thanks
For loquats there is no need to do chip/bud graft. Just anything else works fine, I do cleft, side graft, veneer graft, micro graft, they all take pretty easily. Loquat grafting is as easy as grafting mulberry trees using same methods.
Thanks for sharing that Randy. Good to know. I grafted a Black Carbon and Crystal the remains of 6 different plants that are in Yangmei heaven now. Hoping to see a take but idk the grafts didn’t look very healthy as the cambium was looking slightly faded. I also tried to root a few lower pieces too large to graft. If any take at least I’ll have clean rootstock and plant in ground.
I got 3 yangmei this year – all are doing great. I had to choose them very carefully from a local seller since his trees were unhealthy - I assume he got them shipped from a low quality seller.
But I don’t think there is any magic to Yangmei. They seem pretty easy to grow once you understand what they need.
Mine died, not sure what caused its demise; I assume root rot. Shouldn’t have watered it while in the pot until I saw it weep. I may try again one day if I can find a plant in person. Glad some are having successes
Sorry to hear about it @Gkight
I don’t think the local dongkui were any better than the tree I got shipped. In fact they were in much worse shape. The only advantage was that I paid far less (about $20/tree).
When I got my trees I soaked them for 24 hours in water/seaweed emulsion. I planted them in specially prepared potting soil with 1/3 perlite, 1/3 peat moss and 1/3 citrus soil. No added fertilizer.
Does anyone have male yangmei scionwood available for sale/trade? A bunch of us here in Seattle are interested.
