It took me a while to realize, but here I am staring at my Meyer Lemon tree with 30 fruits on it that I just don’t use. Besides, the neighbors have tons to dump on me already. So the question is, can I top work a seedless Kishu Mandarin to this tree? What technique do you suggest? The three branches that I want to work on are about 1/2 inch in diameter. Thanks!
P.S. I have budwood from CCPP already. How do I store them? I want to wait for a break from this crazy wet weather.
Cut it at the base and stump graft.
Richard, do prefer cleft or bark grafting? Would taking all growth affect the tree, it being evergreen and all?
Here’s the tree.
I say leave it and make lemonade! I’d kill to be able to grow that.
The bark graft works well on a mature trunk like yours.
I just don’t want to post in this thread! 
No lemonade, lemon Ice cubes or lemon squares? Yikes! Send them to me! 
I have access to tons of free Meyer lemons from my neighbors year round. Just like Fuyu Persimmons!
I have nothing to add in terms of grafting information, but I’m with you that I would never eat enough Meyers lemons to warrant a whole lemon tree. That said I added a Lemon Frost lemon to my garden this spring which is sweeter, and I love. Anyway, good luck with top working your tree.
One thing about it, since you don’t really have a dormant season, if your efforts to cleft graft fail, your stump will send up a shoot of new growth that you will be able to graft into soon enough. God bless.
Marcus
I was going to do the same to my Meyer Lemon as well. What rootstock do you have on it? I was all ready to chop it and graft on some mandarins or grapefruit but after a bunch of phone calls, I found out that the rootstock was not one that is good for getting good tasting mandarins.
It’s a Four Winds dwarf tree
I took my Fuyu out this year because I get loads of them from neighbors. I always tell people not to plant lemons & persimmons because there are so many of these trees in peoples yards and they don’t eat the fruit.
FYI. My house came with a lemon and I cut it back to a stump (no leaves) and it has lush growth now. I did it just to change structure of tree it was too tall for my liking.
Meyer Lemon makes excellent lemonade. Just this weekend I made a meyer lemon-lavender soda very good!
preserved lemons, and you will use them all. they are addictive.
Hi Donny,
Which root stock was your Meyer lemon on? Was it a Four Winds Growers tree?
It was a local nursery tree and when I called them, they said that it was a Meyer Lemon rootstock that they then grafted a Meyer scion onto. I think in general, most lemon rootstocks make poor tasting fruit for mandarins.
Oh tell all, spare none. How do you preserve them?
I started using this recipe
but really, any type of cut up lemon immersed in salty lemon juice will produce the goods after 30 days of fermentation. Now I do half lemons with cuts on the side and pressed into the jar. The fermented skin becomes edible. Organic lemons are outrageously expensive but my wife is going to visit her parents next month, and they have 2 trees, her brother has another two, I should be getting enough for 5 quart jars.
Preserved lemons have a lot of applications. Stewing tough meats, all types of fish, and mixed bean salads all get a lot of flavor from them. I suppose any sort of mixed salads with meat/fish and veggies too, or perhaps in tacos. In salads the lemon pieces are best chopped or ground.
They are a pillar of Moroccan cuisine, and originally used in tagine pots to cook past their prime chickens. Old chickens are stringy, and the long simmer plus the acidity makes the meat tender, while the flavor is far superior to regular poultry. I cooked an old one only once, with preserved lemons olives carrots dried apricots onions and peppers, about 5 hours stewing with some wine and broth as liquid, came out phenomenal.
Yes, send them to MrsG, she’ll make Lemon Bars for all!!
Mine is just started to go nuts with flowers. Like yours is mostly at the bottom and still some flowers at the top. I hand pollinate mine with a q tip. I just bought mine last year it was six inches tall but it’s 30" tall now.
Aren’t they self pollinating? I never had to pollinate mine. Maybe I was just lucky?
