Greetings all,

I just acquired a few more trees: Bearss lime, variegated calamondin, and Washington Navel.

The Bearss lime that had quite a few branches that were looking farily leggy.

I pruned those shoots off and saved the wood - its just hardeded wood, most of it around pencil caliper or a little less. I trimmed the tips of the thorns (the Bearss had large thorns) and clipped all the leaves off.

These seem like they would be good budsticks. I'm storing them in a ziplock bag in the refrigerator crisper drawer.

I'd like to try budding, but only recently planted anything that would work well as a rootstock (I planted key lime, sour orange, sweet orange and calamondin) and none have even sprouted.

Any suggestions on where to get some rootstock to try with?

Also, I think I have about 5 extra sticks so if the experts here deem this to be decent budwood, I'd be happy to share a few sticks if anyone would like it (in states where that is legal, so, sorry if you're in FL, LA, CA, or TX).

Cheers,

Pelham

Good chance to practice your T-budding skills. You can graft Bearss Lime and Washington Navel unto your Calamondin for example.

Since your rootstock is too young, try budding onto your calamondin and navel. You could have 3 different fruits on one tree!

Limes also root rather easy.

Ive rooted using hormone under a plastic baggie, with a few breathing holes, spritzed every few days......


Also a 1 L or 20oz soda is a nice fit over some small pots (makes a nicer humidity top than the plastic baggie)

Out of direct sunlight for rootings in baggies

I used trees that were already established to "hold" the buds till the root stock I have is large enough to accommodate budding..
I marked each place to be budded with a different color sharpie marker and wrote down color of sharpie, location on what tree and what was budded on a paper so I will not loose the new buds.. by the time my buds have taken and grown to a useable size I can use them as budwood for my root stock.. So far this is working out fairly well.. I was able to do 5 stand alone trees and the rest were budded on to adult trees I have..

Gina *BabyBlue*

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I'm afraid of messing up one of my existing trees with my first attempts at budding, but maybe I'll give it a go anyways

Cheers,
Pelham