Saturday, March 29, 2008. Spent most of the day doing the ultimate grafting work. My graduate studies professor called me to help him topwork his 20 year old Chandler Pummelo tree. Although this tree has sentimental value, only 2 years out of 20 it has produced fruits of high quality. The other 18 years, the fruit quality were lousy. We don't get enough heat here in the colder Northern California, unlike Southern California. So only those years with extremely good heat waves and unusually warm winters did we get good crop. Having been inspired by my 80-n-1 citrus tree, my professor called me up, and I agreed to help him convert his tree. Converting the whole tree is generally called topworking. He loved Calamondin so much, so we converted this pummelo tree over to Calamondin. I also added a stick of limequat into this tree.

Below is the tree, the one in the middle or 2nd to the right. The leftmost is a lemon, then the Chandler Pummelo, and on the right is the Navel Orange. These are mature 20 year old trees. The Chandler will be converted over.


By joereal at 2008-03-29

It's hard to get there in the middle, but not with a chainsaw


By joereal at 2008-03-29

Limb by Limb they're falling!


By joereal at 2008-03-29

Major scaffolding taking shape now.


By joereal at 2008-03-29

The topmost limb remains, but that too will be taken out.


By joereal at 2008-03-29

Fruits and blooms carted away.


By joereal at 2008-03-29

Big piles of wood, fruits and blooms:


By joereal at 2008-03-29

Bark Grafted with Calamondin


By joereal at 2008-03-29

Another Bark Graft Sample. Left side is Tavares Limequat, on the right is Calamondin.


By joereal at 2008-03-29

It is a lot of work, but it can be done. Especially if you have a highly paid assistant, my daughter, proud of some of her work. It would be exciting to know a couple of months later if some of those she did are successful or not. I think she has a green thumb like Dad.


By joereal at 2008-03-29

wow Joe what a Job hope we can get updates on that would like to see those grafts grow.

Nice work Joe! And I do mean work!!!

Joe that tree could be a 1000 n 1 tree. - Millet