Ok. I have all my budwood from UCR. I have already t-grafted all of the dwarf citrus that I had slated for grafting. Now, I want to create a "joereal" 4 in 1 type tree with my Eureka Lemon & Grapefruit, but I don't want:

A: a lopsided tree
B: all my new varieties at the top, where I will need a ladder

Any suggestions for a grafting novice? I think I would like to stick with T Grafting.

Citrusboy

It requires years of planning.

Have you already prepped up your tree for the new budwoods?

About a year before the budwoods have arrived, what I usually do is prune off those terminals to encourage branching and work out the balancing act from there by removing unwanted limbs and selecting only those that are in the right orientation. By cutting off the terminal leader, you are forcing the tree to grow laterally, shortening it at the same time.

A 4-in-1 type is the easiest to do. It will be lopsided if you let the tree on its own after T-budding. Really you should expect a lopsided tree next year, but be excited about it, if I were you. Next months or next year, watch out which grafts will be more vigorous, you can either control its growth by pruning or wait it out and graft more varieties over some of the big branches of the vigorous cultivars. Approach this like you would prune a tree for balance, but instead of cutting off the disproportionate growers, T-bud over them strategically with the objective in mind of cutting them off for balance but new cultivars will sprout. Do this for several cycles, you will easily end up with a well balanced tree that could perhaps accomodate the entire citrus germplasm of UCR.

Thanks Joereal!

I will take this weekend to get a real good look at where I want to start with the t-buds. Unfortunately, I haven't been planning a year, so I will have to put some very good thought into what branches I'll be budding.

This is so much better than watching "So, you think you can dance" on Tivo...

Citrusboy

Citrusboy, don't worry about the initial imbalance, just go ahead and do it. You can bud more later to achieve balance. For me, it is as routine as pruning, and never a one time done deal. If you are most like other people who buys multigraft trees and forget about them, they will be disappointed quickly with a lopsided tree. Benny and I are always eagerly awaiting vigorous sprouts from our trees, then we bud unto these and orient the buds into the proper direction so that the resulting budded cultivars will make the tree balanced looking. It is really exciting, of course not instantaneously, but more prolonged anticipation and pleasure, yes indeed, a lot better than watching Tivo. One thing very good about t-budding is that you have the entire full circle to chose the direction of orienting the bud on the destination branch.