Ah OK, hadn't heard of it before but found it.

Failed...

MarcV wrote:

My first official graft attempt! It's a stick of my ruby clementine on a ponderosa lemon seedling rootstock.

Like I wrote in my other thread, I have a couple of plants suffering from root rot. Especially my bergamot tree is in a very bad shape and I don't expect it to stay alive, although it is currently growing new shoots that look OK. Could a plant recover from root rot?

Anyway, if this one dies I'll have to get me a new one, I love bergamot citrus. If grafting would work I could just graft the plant onto another root stock...

I have bad experience with root rot only with trees bought in supermarket imported from Sicily. My idea is, that the soil from there have to be infested.
And yes, if you want to save the variety, just graft it on new rootstock.

Depends on the rootstock, I have never seen it on trifoliata or it's hybrids.

This must be a special case then, as the rootstock is poncirus...

And you have root rot? Any photos of it?

Didn't make pictures of it, but it was very clear!

What did you do, have it in standing water?

Well... I found out that, while the top half soil in the container is dry, the bottom half is still soaking wet! Time for some better soil!

Rookie!

Root rot treatment is possible, and though I've heard that complete control is unlikely/impossible (although perhaps that was referring to orchard-scale control), my only experience with it is that treatment can work wonders. My girlfriend's parents have a tree, which was purchased and planted perhaps 5-7 years ago - Owari satsuma on Khuharksy-carrizo. The year it was purchased, as a three-gallon, four-foot plant, it bore four fruits. Since that time, it has produced exactly zero fruits and stayed the same size. Last summer, I took a look at it and noticed extensive gummosis, with new flushes wilting and dying shortly after emergence, so I asked her father how frequently he watered it. "Oh, it gets watered every day, sometimes twice a day."

I pruned all the dead wood and treated the tree with potassium salts of phosphorous acid (marketed as Organocide Plant Doctor, although it is not certified organic it apparently has extremely low toxicity, at least for mammals, fish, and birds), spraying the whole plant with dilute solution and providing more concentrated soil drench (still used very little of the stuff overall - perhaps an ounce or two?). Two weeks later, I transplanted the tree (discovering, in the process, that root rot had reduced the root system to the size of a two-gallon plant pot), re-treated with the phosphorous acid in the same manner, and then followed up with two doses of mycorhizzae (~ 2 teaspoons of Plant Success granules, worked into the soil around the tree) a week and a month later, respectively, and instructions not to water it except during droughts of over a week. Despite a wet and unusually cool summer here in N. Florida that should be perfect for breeding phytophthora, it's put on three flushes and is looking great, without the least sign of phytophthora. Best of all, it is finally bearing fruit again.

My star ruby grapefruit plant is recovering nicely. Remember how it looked like this winter...


...this is what it looks like today!


Another bunch of flowers on my orange plants...
Salustiana:


Sanguinelli:


The seville seedlings that had the yellow leaves are apparently recovering...


Tahiti lime fruits...


Eustis limequat ripening...


Kara mandarins...



The bergamot is still doing reasonably well despite the root rot problem...


The etrog is an immensely vigorous plant. Had I known this before I wouldn't have gotten it in the first place...


This is what it looked like when I received it...