Growing citrus from cuttings question

General Fruit Growing
#1

I want to preface that im a noob with growing. I wanted to buy citrus rootstock and buy different varieties of citrus scions and graft them to make a quick fruiting citrus tree.

My question is can i skip the rootstock step if I just plant the citrus scions with root hormone? If i do that will it still act like a grafted tree in the way of quicker fruiting? Thank you

#2

Please pay attention to quarantines on Citrus plant material. Citrus greening disease is a serious problem and its spread is largely due to people who think laws are for somebody else.

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#3

What country do you live in?

#4

Yes I am planning to purchase from Texas Citrus Budwood Certification Program

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#5

In South Texas in USA

#6

Well you should know that I have bought budwood from the ‘Texas Citrus Budwood Certification Program’. The budwood I received was too fragile to graft with any method other than bud grafting, since I had no bud grafting experience I figured trying to root them might be the best option, yet they did not root either. I do believe that maybe you could request less fragile cuttings, make sure that you are buying something that you can use as is, ask the ‘Texas Citrus Budwood Certification Program’ to make sure that you are getting something that you can use. I got navel orange and mandarin budwood from them.

Same thing happened with the cuttings from the ‘Citrus Clonal Protection Program’ in California.

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#7

thank you for the good info I will ask questions before i purchase. I am a noob at this so I just want to make sure. If I were to successfully root the budwood will it fruit faster than a normal tree like the same speed as a grafted tree?

#8

I have only rooted citrus root stock successfully, not citrus to fruit, so I do not know the answer to this. Yet I do know that some citrus roots better than others.

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#9

I think the answer is yes and no. By which I mean a grafted tree has a fully developed root system and can start growing vigorously from the moment the graft takes, while a rooted cutting might take a whole year or more before its roots are sufficient to support vigorous growth. I successfully rooted a mandarin cutting this spring, as documented here:

That plant is still much smaller than seedlings that I started this spring, and maybe a third the size of the successful grafts I did. There’s no way it will be large enough to support fruit for at least a few years, even if it might flower and set fruit.

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