I am gladly reporting some of the budding failures that I recently experienced and if you had them too, then it would confirm my suspicions of incompatibilities. Or to help others device more creative ways in the future. This way, success or failure, it will be an example how failures are equally helpful. In today's scientific reporting and even amongst us, we only tend to report our successful trials and shelf the failed ones.

So far, I have grafted limes on lemons, including the volkameriana rootstock and they were all partial to complete failures. The buds simply died out. I also tried bark grafting, some died, and others remained green but did not sprout. The Mary Ellen Lime and Palestinian Sweet lime showed some take and growth on Lisbon lemons but are not vigorous.

The Giant Key Lime is an immediate failure on the Volk, Eureka, Lisbon and Meyer, also a failure on Flying Dragon, with only one bud still barely alive on th FD out of the 4 that I did. I usually have 100% take for varieties without compatibility issues. Even with incompatibility issues, I sometimes get away with if the timing is right.

I did graft Giant Key Lime unto Sour Orange Rootstock and that took very well. I would have suspected of faulty budwoods but then the fact that the same budwood where i took the bud and grafted unto a sour orange was successful made me suspect that these failures could be due to incompatibility issues. I am also assembling a multi-grafted lime tree using sour orange as the base rootstock, and already it has Bearss and Key Lime aside from the Giant Key Lime. I plan to add Mary Ellen and Palestinian Sweet Lime and other limes later on, and near the top to protect the tree from frosty nights, I would graft Eustis and Tavares Limequat unto this Lime tree. The only drawback is that Sour Orange is susceptible to gummosis and root rot in our area.

I am not losing hope on completing my inground lem-o-lime tree, as I already grafted several sour orange buds unto my lemons and they are taking very well. I would later on graft unto these sour orange interstems and have a complete lem-o-lime tree. So far my lem-o-lime tree have Bearss, Key and Kaffir limes on it. But all the limes are lethargic. I cannot balance the tree unless they become vigorous, and so am planning on an interstem strategy.

I plan to try more Giant Key Lime unto sudachi and yuzu and see how good the interactions are.

Anyone have other experiences of grafting key limes unto other cultivars? I am planning to work on various interstems. Meanwhile, my multi-grafted lime tree will be a separate repository of my collected limes as a backup plan.

I'm glad you posted this. I was planning/dreaming of bark grafting a Mexican Key Lime onto MY containerized Lisbon Lemon. Not yet though.

I did, however, tried to bark graft a Key Lime onto an unknown rootstock which I suspect is some sort of a lemon variety (at my parents' house). When I crushed the leaves growing out of the rootstock, it gave a VERY lemony smell. I bark grafted a lot of citrus scionwoods (oranges, lemon, mandarins) onto this overgrown rootstock and all of them took. My Key Lime scionwood, however is showing signs of drying out.

I know I am a Beginner, but I think I got the Joe's bark grafting technique down. All my other citrus bark graft took, except the Key Lime. I bark grafted a lot of peach/nectarine/plum/apricot scionwoods onto my parents' unknown nectarine tree and all of them took, except for the apricot (signs of drying out). Can apricot be grafting onto a nectarine tree?

greenz, apricots can be bark grafted unto peaches or nectarines. In fact one of the favorite apricot rootstock is the Lovell peach. Nectarines and peaches can also be grafted unto apricots. The only problem when grafting apricots or grafting whatever unto apricots is that the apricots are more sensitive to blight and other diseases when cut during the dormant to early season growth. You really need to graft them when it has been dry or rainless for two weeks, like in early summer.

Another problem when you graft apricots and peaches/nectarines together is that you won't be able to easily use lime-sulfur anymore except in the very dormant stages. Apricots are sensitive to lime-sulfur, especially when you apply oil within days before or after.

Thanks Joe for your insight. I didn't know apricots were so sensitive.

I'm not really an apricot fan, just though I give it a grafting try.

hi,
These incompatibilities can occur because Giant Key Lime is tetraploid ?

I don't know how close limequat is to key lime, but I did graft a limequat on a miewa kumquat and it is doing fine. It produced 6 fruit the first year.

This spring I grafted orangequat and thomasville citrangequat to a lemonquat tree. So far so good. I grafted seedless nagami to: trifoliate, meiwa and keraji. Only the grafts on keraji took?? They have grown vigorously also. I tried grafting seedless kishu to: citradia, citrumelo and trifoliate- none of the 15 buds took and I don't know why. Otherwise, my t-buds have had about a 90% success rate this spring. I grafted the following to a large citrumelo: US 119, page, clemenule, nuclem, changsha, clem-yuzu, unknown valencia orange and bloomsweet. All the grafts are growing nicely. I have a moro blood orange that is potted and approximately 8' tall. I grafted variegated cara cara and tarocco blood orange to it. I grafted nova, fairchild and sunburst to a large citrandarin. I grafted bergamot, seville sour and sancitchang to a large citradia. I grafted two different selections of changsha to my existing changsha. Also budded variegated calamondin to meiwa. I have really enjoyed t-budding and bark grafting from knowledge learned here. Top working trees has allowed me to grow many more varieties since my property is out of space!

JoeReal wrote

Quote:

I did graft Giant Key Lime unto Sour Orange Rootstock and that took very well

So I will graft giant key lime on sour orange, and try to do it on macrophylla, and maybe citrumelo or c35.

It's done : I have grafted giant key on Citrus Macrophylla, Carrizo citrange, swingle citrumelo, C35 and key lime seedling.