For those of you that Do Budding (Tbuding, etc), where do you get your rootstock(IE Poncrious Trifoliate, or Flying Dragon).

Do you grow your own from seed? If so where do you get your seeds?

Or do you buy 1-2 year old seedlings? If so, where do you get those?

depends on who needs what for when.
Im growing about 10 FDs right now. from seed.
Sometimes you can find rootstock on E-bay, im betting big nurseries could do something for you if you contacted them with a big enough request.

That is where my problem comes in, the places that i can find are wholesale and or requre a minimum order of 100 seedlings.

I found another place to buy seeds, but the smallest quantity they sell is by the quart.

i am looking smaller quantity, like 5-10 at a time:(

100 is really not that much. Plant them in a back garden & use them as you need them. They can be planted very close together & that forces the to remain more upright.

Wait until this fall when the citrus are ripe. You will have a much better chance of obtaining rootstock seed.

Ned

Ned is right. This fall, Oct - Nov, go to the Citrus Swap forum here & ask for seeds. You can pay small postage & handleing --$2-3.00(?) or so & get seeds. Much cheaper than buying off ebay or whatever. Many ppl on this forum have them growing in their backyards.

It is october now,.... is it too early?

I have a few FD seedlings I bought.. and 3 Tri seedlings (one a bonus in an exchange) and 2 of 5 Swingle I bought off e-bay that were suppose to be lemon lime and orange killed the other 3 ....
More over.. I get cuttings from my "adult" trees root stock.. when it sends out suckers from the rootstock I wait till it is about 3 inches long and snip them off and try to root them.. this has been working very well.. I have acquired by this method rough lemon and some tri..
So I now have... rough lemon, swingle, Trifoliate, and Flying dragon..
Can't tell how many root stocks I have rooting right now.. I also take cuttings from root stock when I graft to it and root those cuttings.. I'm thinking I have roughly around a dozen root stocks from these methods.. seeds... trade... purchase and cuttings..
I might have enough root stock to get me through my spring grafting FIX (grafting addict)
I don't know if Stan McKenzie has any more.. but I bought a few FD from him..

Gina *BabyBlue*

I am thinking of using a Cal. i rooted dor stock if i need one, but i am trying to get flying dragon.

Gina, what method do you use for rooting your cuttings?

I have tried many times to do just what you do, with almost a Zero Success rate

Jimmy, this might be a good time to PM Ned. He can help you with seeds.
Make him an offer he can't refuse LOL

Jimmy,
I get my cutting usually about 3 inches or so long and have at least 3 or 4 leaves. I clear all of the leaves and thorns of the bottom half inch to inch.. then I scrape the "bark" off the twig.. I started doing this with my knife but have found it quicker and easier to bite the twig and scrape the bark off with my teeth.. crude but effective and you don't have to worry about water source to dip the twig in just wet with saliva before dipping in rooting hormone.. be careful not to get the rooting hormone on your hand if you are going to root more than one cutting.. I usually rinse my hands between cuttings to be sure.. any way.. I take a moistened peat pellet and open a hole in it with a bamboo skewer (if you just poke the cutting in with out opening a hole most of the rooting hormone gets knocked off) then I put the cutting in the pellet and squish the sides of the pellet to firm up the pellet around the twig... then I put them in a small bowl inside a plastic zipper baggie.. the bowl helps hold the sides of the plastic bag away from the leaves... place the bag away from DIRECT light but not dark location.. I open the bag about once a day to look in on my babies but don't touch for a few weeks.. after a few weeks I reach in and grab the pellet out of the bowl and check for roots.. if no roots I put the pellet back.. if there are roots coming out of the bottom of pellet I put the pellet in a pot and treat it with kit gloves first week.. checking on it daily to make sure the leaves aren't wilting..
Incidentally.. I found that with the pellets that roots grow DOWN no matter what... one of my bowls had gotten knocked off the place where I had them and all the pellets were on their sides.. I found it a couple weeks later I was stumped as to what happened to my rootings and there they were.. roots growing out of the side.. looked kinda funny..

I have had a few fail but usually the ones that fail are very tip cuttings.. I have yet to have a cutting that was very young wood take.. try and make sure it is at least one growth spurt ago..

can't think of any other hints.. hope this helps.. and maybe others will chime in with other good advice...

Gina *BabyBlue*

Hmm, that is similar to what I due, but I have been using the Green florists "wet foam", Perhaps I am not using old enough shoots although my biggest problem when I put them in pots, I have about a 95% mortality rate

do you have any swingle to try?? I have found that swingle takes the best and quickest..
I think next time I do a bunch of grafting I will do side by side and take pics... I noticed that the swingle roots grew faster and were thicker than the other root stocks I rooted.. and they adapted to being potted up much quicker as well.. Just my observation..
after potting up I did notice that they all suffered limp leaf quicker when I didn't keep close eye on how dry the pot was... until they are established in the soil it is important to check them often for dryness.. they don't like to dry out at all..
when they were in the Ziploc baggie they were getting more moisture from the air in the container and when potted up they are learning to rely more on the new roots they just developed.. and trying to produce more roots..
where I keep my rooted cuttings after they have been potted up is kept at about 60-80% humidity.. maybe you need to raise the humidity in the room??

Gina *BabyBlue*

No I do not have any Swingle...

The Humidity just might be the problem...

I am in the desert, and I was keeping them in the house when they were transplanted.

The humidity in the house averages around 25-30%.

I will try keeping my transplants in the greenhouse, now that I have it. Since I use evaporative cooling during the day, the humidity will be staying much higher