How long from graft to fruit on a mature citrus tree?

General Fruit Growing
1

Hi All,

As I mentioned in the post quoted below, I plan to begin grafting over an existing tangelo tree. It’s about 8-10 ft tall and about 7-8 ft wide and in good health and bore about 300-500 tangelos this year. Not sure how old it is.
My question was - how should I think about grafting it and how long will it take to create fruit based on these grafts if they take? I suspect I’ll be able to graft in March if the rains let off.

Thanks!

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2

@kingwood @fruitnut wanted to see if you had any thoughts on the above. I was trying to figure out my strategy here. Should I graft a few things on the sides but leave a large branch or two from the main tree to keep the possibility of getting some fruit next year too? Or just go for it and get rid of all branches/etc and just graft on and keep my fingers crossed. This is the most mature tree in my whole yard so I’m a bit scared/worried of going big and loosing out on a few years of fruit. Even though the tangelo isn’t amazing, I’d rather keep some fruiting branches if I can from it until the new buds take and start growing and flowering.

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My weikiwa did not taste good. I top work the tree with other varieties. I grow the others on your list, they are good selections.

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Wondering if anyone has advice on this? I should get my budwood from the CCCPP by the end of April to early May. Thanks!

5

What did you end up doing for your new grafts?

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6

It takes about 2 years typically when you use a fruiting tree scion like the ones from UCR/CCPP and the tree you are grafting it on is a mature tree that has fruited.

I grafted a Shiranui on my large Bears Lime tree and in 2 years it had 13 full size (.75-1 lb) fruits on the branch. It was so heavy I had to brace it up since this branch cracked (still on the branch) from the weight. Tree is fine now, healed with no problem.

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