Citrus Growers Forum

JoeReal · Posted: Wed 19 Mar, 2008 3:01 am

The plants are new and so are the grafts.

You can graft a feshly bought bare-rooted tree. You will just have to take out more than 4/5 of the original stems and then graft over them. By removing more than 80% of the existing stems, this gives enough balance for roots to support your grafts.

This is my new 5-n-1 cherry tree. Next year, it will have more. This is how some trees get started in my yard. I got them on the cheap from big box stores, prune severly and graft over them. So I love to select bare rooted fruit trees with nice branches. See how they are sprouting already? Some will even bear fruits the year they are grafted and doesn't seem to slow them down.

By joereal at 2008-03-18

JoeReal · Posted: Wed 19 Mar, 2008 3:02 am

Aluminum Foil is used to shade out in case the sunlight gets too intense in the afternoon. Only the south side of the graft is shielded. Notice that the union is not covered with aluminum, only the upper scionwood. The scionwood that I used on this one is non-dormant. You can use non-dormant wood any time too, provided you keep the scionwood alive during transport in a cooled container, and then when you graft them, you will have to shield them from overheating, and one of the quickest way to do that is to use aluminum foil. Shown here is a non-dormant Apricot scionwood that I grafted unto a VVA-1 ultradwarfing rootstock.

By joereal at 2008-03-18

JoeReal · Posted: Wed 19 Mar, 2008 3:02 am

This used to be a chance seedlings that grew from the fallen fruits of my multi-grafted plum tree. Now it is grafted over. No prunus seedling is safe in my yard. It will be off with their heads and be grafted over. I will dig this out next year and give as gifts to friends. The grafting operation on seedlings is the fastest. Less than a minute to do. In large trees, it takes me more than a day to graft, probably taking 23 hours and 58 minutes to decide where to graft and a couple of minutes to do the operation

By joereal at 2008-03-18

JoeReal · Posted: Wed 19 Mar, 2008 3:03 am

These lucky Flying Dragons, waiting in line to be grafted over. I'm just waiting for the growth flushes. The secret in grafting citrus successfully is to wait for the growth flushes. By then the barks would be slipping and the operation successful and actually faster to do. One way is to bring them indoors by the south facing window. But my room with that window is already crowded, so these lucky specimens are waiting it out for the warmer days to flush and then be grafted over with the best cultivars. Some lucky friends will receive these as gifts someday.

By joereal at 2008-03-18

dauben · Posted: Wed 19 Mar, 2008 10:35 am

JoeReal wrote:

These lucky Flying Dragons, waiting in line to be grafted over.

Joe,
About what diameter is your flying dragons before you graft onto them. I have some FD's sligtly smaller than the ones in your picture, but I thought I would have to wait a bit longer for the rootstock to increase in size. What type of graft do you plan on using on your FD's?

Thanks,
Phillip

dauben · Posted: Wed 19 Mar, 2008 11:05 am

JoeReal wrote:

You can use non-dormant wood any time too, provided you keep the scionwood alive during transport in a cooled container, and then when you graft them, you will have to shield them from overheating, and one of the quickest way to do that is to use aluminum foil.

I learn something new every day. I was under the impression that if the buds on a scion had already started growing that you would loose them if you tried to graft the scion. I imagine that you would have better success if the weather forecast has lower temperatures predicted.

Phillip