Thats great Skeet hopefully you will get more of those buds to break.

I can't believe it, but I had 2 different Daisy buds breaking on the trifoliate sprout-- both were broken off when I cut a limb off of a nearby oak tree. I thought the limb would fall in the opposite direction-- it almost knocked me off a 10 ft ladder with the chain saw-- so I guess things were not as bad as they could have been.

But of all the luck-- not even one leaf was broken off of the satsuma--just those two 1/4 inch bud sprouts!

Well Skeet, better those 2 buds than YOU! You can always bud again, but you can't grow another arm or leg.
I was happy that a bud sprouted about 6 weeks ago from T bud last Sept. It had a nice 1/2 inch long leaf & it fell off! The bud is still green, but I don't think anything more will grow out of it. I'll just wait & see.

The understock sprouts are easily rubbed off plus the 4 or 5 inches of the understock are really nice to tie the new bud on giving a nice straight trunk.

Good news-- one of the Daisy buds is starting a second sprout! Yea!

Thanks goodness for second chances!

I am finally getting growth on some of my buds on the Lisbon lemon, both the tie down and cut-off method have worked. So far I have Daisy, Hamlin, Ruby Red, Star Ruby, Royal Gft, Valencia and Honey Tan buds breaking. Im still waiting on Meyer lemon, Sunburst, Murcott, Mandarin, Ambersweet, Calamondin. I think I may have lost the Dancy and Owari buds over the winter as the bottom half of the T-bud dried up-- the top half is still green but the actual bud is dead, but the Owari I put on my sisters tree is breaking.

My valencia sprout is developing a flower bud already! The bud sprout is only about 2 inches long but has at least one terminal flower bud and may be developing a lateral bud.

Should I pick these off?

One of my Ruby Red Grapefruit buds is developing a flower bud-- the sprout is less than an inch long! Since I have 2 sprouts of that one, I may let that develop just to see how things go.

I guess that any buds that did not break by the end of the first flush will have to wait until the next flush. It is possible that one or two of the buds are blind buds, but I see a definite bump on most of them. I still have at least 5 varieties that have not started, most of them only had one bud survive.

Are my chances of forcing the buds going to decrease with every flush?

What is the longest it can take to get the buds to break?

Skeet:
I have more than 2 years now grafted to my Eureka that still refuse to break. They are still green though so I leave them alone.
Some are very eager to break and some are sooooo slooow.
So you wonder what did I do wrong?

I have hope that they will break with the next flush. The calamondin looks like it was ready to go-- the bud has definitly swollen, but I think that was near the end of the flush for the tree. I hope some of the others will so some life as well. I have several that I used the tie down method on that I may move on to the next level -- either breaking the limb or cutting the limb to force it. Actually, most of the ones that started were ones I used the tie down method on.

The meyer lemon buds were ones that I cut off but still have not shown any sign of breaking-- these are definitly not blind buds and still look good. Maybe they are just waiting for warmer weather.

I have been spraying the still stubborn buds with Gibberelic acid-- the same 10 ppm solution I was using on the minneola flowers to help make it set fruit. Does anyone know if I need a different concentration to stimulate buds that won't break?

I'm getting a second wave of buds breaking, my Mandarin, Ambersweet, Murcott, and Calamondin buds are breaking now-- just tiny 1/8 to 1/4 inch sprouts, but they are on the way! I guess the 10 ppm GA was sufficient.

I have a Sunburst and a Meyer that are still resisting--maybe in a couple more weeks.

Two of my earlier buds have bloomed and set fruit-- a valencia bud and a Ruby Red Gft.