12-03-2006, after another round of frosty night (We've had 7 frosty nights when pic was taken). From afar, the tree looks well balanced. About half of the grafts came to be loaded with fruits this season.
Who says you can't have it all in just one tree?

One big advantage of this multi-grafting craziness, is that the cold hardy cultivars really protected the cold sensitive ones grafted below, acting as natural frost blankets. There are tricks here that even the cold sensitive pummelos came alright so far. I haven't protected this tree from frost bites. Here's the latest pic this am of the whole tree, after 7 separate nights of frosts. And there is that ladder to the left where I climb to get the close-up pics as I go up:

Still unripe, and leaning heavily on this side are lima acidless, Marss Early, Salustiana, Dream Navel and Rhode Red. They're all there along this branch. It is almost breaking, I may have to thin these out.

these are the tangelos in the 50-n-1 tree, in the mid-canopy section

more pics to come...later

Looking great Joe. Do you plant on added more types of citrus or is it at it limits, also how long is your harvest period on this tree I would guess a long time.

I have read some of your older post regarding limb selection and maintenance of your cocktail trees, but I'm sure there is much more to know.

What are the most important selection factors?

Where is the best place to the t-bud relative to the individual limb once selected? Orientation?

How do you know when you need to "move" a cultivar to a new limb?

Thanks in advance-- Skeet

i plan to completely graft over the Washington Navel branches. It is loaded with lots of fruits, but having been spoiled by the taste of my new selection, the washington navels are now my least desired oranges. So they will be grafted over. That would be 10 more grafts next year, perhaps, blood oranges and the bigger types of quats and maybe a sudachi and yuzu on the very top. That is not final yet.

On the topmost are mandarins: Shasta Gold, Miho Wase, Yosemite Gold, Ponkan

Chironjas and Oro Blancos, still a long ways to go. Perhaps in the mid-spring next year.

Close-up of Chironja.





And here's another clump of Oro Blancos. Note the True Dwarf label? I don't think it really exists when you plant your trees in the ground. Oro Blancos are ripe several mnths after they turn yellow.

Star Ruby Grapefruits, in the bottom portion of the canopy:




Well, the Rio Star grapefruits have been harvested earlier and are here along with some of my other samples. From left to right: Perhaps Yosemite Gold mandarins (not sure about the worn out label), Owari Satsuma, and Miho Wase Satsuma. At the back are the Rio Star Grapefruits. Miho Wase Satsuma are bigger and sweeter than Owari. If you think Owari are already good, the Miho Wase is even better, with almost a full month earlier harvest. My Rio Star are never as good as those from southern California nor Texas.

If you noticed, most of my cold sensitive citruses have fruits near the bottom and innermost branches, totally protected from frosts. That's one of the tricks I have to do in Northern California.

EZ's Oro Blanco grafted this summer 2006. Hopefully this will bloom and give me the sweetest fruits in 2-3 years time. But this might bloom this spring time and it will be a big decision to cut off the flowers and let it grow or just let it fruit.

Mato Buntan pummelo, amazingly cold hardy. This side is exposed to frosty nights but have not been damaged, 2 winters now.