I'm new to grafting so I have a "dumb" question. When you order budwood from a place such as UCR, you must order by the number of buds, 12 buds per variety minimum. For grafting onto a rootstock rather than budding, how many buds per plant should you order? Twelve? Six? Does anyone know how many buds per piece of wood one typically gets, or is it totally random? Thanks for your help. (By the way, I don't want to ask UCR because I don't want to sound like a beginner hobbyist which I am, since they prefer to ship to commercial growers).
Fan T.

There is a minimum order of 36 buds, and that's just $27 which equates to at least 36 plants if you have 36 rootstocks to graft to. That means at a minimum, you should get 3 cultivars of 12 buds each.

Now I always end up with more buds that I can use, so I usually team up with fellow hobbyists here in our area and split up the cost. Since you are in California, we can exchange extra also if you like.

Practically, the best budwoods to get is during the January cutting. The buds have already hardened, and shipping is during the cool season, and the budwoods can stay in the fridge until the first spring flush (ideal for budding) and they would be excellently viable. The precent take on those January budwoods are 100% for me.

If you are a beginner I would recommend that you do bark grafting since you have a lot of excess budwoods. Typically for an order of 12 buds per cultivar, UCR will give you anywhere from 2 to 6 budsticks containing anywhere from 3 to 8 buds each. If you get 2 budsticks, it will have at least 6 buds each. I would use a whole budstick for bark grafting. If there are more budsticks, then I would bark graft twice. If I have extra, I would store them in the fridge as back-up in case the graft fail or are incompatible. Or would simply exchange the extra for other cultivars from fellow members who also ordered budwoods.

Grafting is fun and pleasurable for me.

I would do budding only if the destination tree or rootstock is young.

Thanks, that's just the information I needed. I was thinking of ordering a few cold hardy varieties such as US 119 and Kinkoji since they are practically impossible to find in Southern California nurseries and other states won't ship to here. I have the unfortunate situation of living in a normally citrus friendly state but in a microclimate in the hills of around 8a (I just moved here so I don't know for sure yet) so my only option for obtaining very cold hardy citrus is to propagate my own. If I end up with extra budwood I will certainly offer them here on this forum.

Or you can go to Four Winds Website and Contact Aaron Dillon for custom graft. I tried ordering Kinkoji last time, but they did not have budwoods for me. I would order them again someday, and not in a hurry to do so.

I just received my budwood (UCR shipped it Fedex overnight). For those curious, here's what one of the cultivars, US119 looks like.

There are 3-4 stems, each about 6-8 inches in length, for each 12 buds.

Now I have a question. I want to graft one of the cultivars (Kinkoji or Bloomsweet) on a plant with a less cold hardy variety (Cocktail grapefruit) already on there. Is it a good idea to graft or bud directly to the rootstock, rather than the existing variety? Is there a way of doing a bark graft to the rootstock without removing the original cultivar?

Why not bark graft the cold hardy kind on top of your existing cultivar. Grafting on top, protects the one below them. The one on top will serve as natural frost blanket. That's how my 70-n-1 citrus tree was assembled. All the very cold hardy cultivars on top and the least cold hardy ones in the bottom of the canopy.

I, too, got my budwoods from UCR today. Hey, they're pretty fast!

Joe:

1) Since the budwoods are in ziplock bags with just a label tag in them, do you suggest wrapping it with a moist paper towel first, before putting them in the fridge? Are the budwoods going to dry out??? How long will it last? Right when I got my budwoods, I just put them in the veggie bin (crisper). I didn't open them or anything.

2) Since this was my first time ordering from UCR CCPP, how does one pay them? UCR sent me my budwoods first. Are they going to charge me later?

Well, I'm excited. Obviously UCR gave me a lot more than the 12 buds per variety. After I graft what I need on my current trees, I need to know where to get citrus rootstocks. Any idea where to buy rootstock on-line? I should work on people's Christmas present. LOL!


So the addiction begins......

I myself don't open the ziploc bags until they are ready for distribution or shipment. Once you opened them, you will have to place moistened newspaper. I find that moistened newspaper have anti-fungal powers than do paper towel which can become very moldy. But if you don't open them, straight into the vegetable bin they directly stay until ready. No need to do additional work. Just keep them sealed.

They will send you an invoice when you are about to forget that you ordered,

Then you'll only have 30 days to pay from the invoice date or else they'll send the bill collectors plus heavy fines and black listing for the next cutting.

Not all the budwoods shipped are viable, so don't jump up and down yet. Beware of the blind buds!

Sorry for the novice question, but:

How does one distinguish the blind buds?

If possible, how about a comparison picture/link of a good bud vs. a blind bud?

Regards,

It is the first 2 to 3 buds from the base of the stem. They are not swollen unlike regular buds. Am searching for a pic, I have them somewhere in my computer.

You can buy plenty of rootstocks here at about $0.90 per rootstock seedling plus shipping (scroll to the bottom of the page for the price):

http://www.citrustreesource.com/pricing/


But beware, the rootstocks may not be easy to graft to if freshly ordered. I usually order my rootstocks well ahead of my budwood order so that they grow to easier to graft sizes before I do my grafting.

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the link above. I will bookmark this.

1) How does one order from them? I don't see an on-line order page,.....just a phone number and Contact page. Not that I don't want to talk to them. I'm used to just punching in some numbers, and then you send me your stuff.

2) Should I be concern with what type of citrus rootstocks they offer or sell? Do you know personally?

Thanks again.

They also sell seed for rootstock. Tuber rootstock is going to be very small & difficult to bud to...