I’ve been growing a kumquat and some lime seedlings and had some questions. Included are some images of them.
The kumquat (and some others) have definitely had a nasty spider mite infestation and I’ve also had some trouble with scale insects. I’m working on cleaning them out with some Neem oil and manual cleaning, but I don’t know if that’s the only problem they have.
For the key limes one of my pots has three in it. Long term I can’t keep it that way, but I was reading about how you can braid some plants together and they will self graft. First, would this be possible for my three key limes, or would it cut off the flow of nutrients and cause them to die? If I wanted to graft them together, would it be better to tie them together without braiding them? Second, would it be plausible to graft kumquat onto one and something like Meyer lemon onto another to end up with “one” plant in one pot that has three different fruit? And if so, would it be best to first graft the other variety and then attempt to fuse them together?
Thanks for any insight or suggestions!
You don’t need to graft them into each other above ground, they will likely form root grafts on their own below ground.
If you want to ensure they fuse, then I would expose the cambium before tying them together. You could do something like this (illustration from The Grafter’s Handbook):
Another option would be to try to twist some of the side branches around each other like this, rather than the entire trunks:
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Spider mites thrive in environments that lack suitable predators. Neem oil will entangle weaker spider mites but the more robust members will survive, producing a stronger follow-on generation. An arachnid toxin is required to delete a spider mite infestation.
The issue with multi-grafted Citrus is that the more vigorous species will dominate – in your case the Meyer lemon cultivar.
I can grow Citrus outdoors year-round here but there are many fruits including black raspberry, european black current, and exotic pears that thrive in your location but won’t work here. Why not try some of them instead?
Thanks! Hmm I’ll rethink that plan then, still might stick the limes together, not sure. Oh I’m growing other things too! Trying to find some good red or orange fleshed apples and some nice plum/apricots to grow outside, the citrus are houseplants in the winter.
