Citrus Growers Forum

JoeReal · Posted: Mon 24 Mar, 2008 2:21 am

Happy Easter to everyone!

Grafted Today 03/23/2008

Persimmons:
Meader on D. lotus
Honan Red on Izu
Nishijo on Izu
Imoto on Izu
Dai-dai Maru on Izu
Jiro (selection 24276) on Izu
Nikitskaja Bordovaja on Izu
Jiro (selection 24276) on Jiro
Nikitskaja Bordovaja on D. virginiana

Apples:
Fiesta on Empire
Edward's on Duchess

Pears:
Yoinashi on spalding
Magness on Comice
Kosui on Comice
Chong's Pear on Spalding

JoeReal · Posted: Mon 24 Mar, 2008 2:22 am

And grafted my poor hands too! Last year I escaped the knife. I don't know what came across me today!

By joereal at 2008-03-23

Ramon-Tj · Posted: Mon 24 Mar, 2008 3:09 pm

I was grafting this last week some Avocado, grapefruit and Mandarin I got from Phillip this last week and I cut my self, good thing I had duct tape, I hope the buds do o.k. with this heat.

JoeReal · Posted: Mon 24 Mar, 2008 3:42 pm

Ramon, I will contact you about available budwoods soon!

Ramon-Tj · Posted: Mon 24 Mar, 2008 4:41 pm

thanks Joe.... that would be great, got a new tree from a friend he told me its a grapefruit about 4 ft tall nice branches to graft on. the A. Clementine and Midnight valencia are doing good, Lisbon and bears are just breaking

Ramon

sunrisecowboy · Posted: Tue 25 Mar, 2008 2:55 am

JoeReal if you cut a finger off just graft another one on! Shocked

dauben · Posted: Tue 25 Mar, 2008 5:33 pm

You guys redefine the phrase, "putting your blood, sweat, and tears into your work." It was supposed to be taken figuratively, not literally.

Phillip

dauben · Posted: Tue 25 Mar, 2008 5:42 pm

Ramon-Tj wrote:

I hope the buds do o.k. with this heat.

Yea, the heat's been a killer for me also. I'm afraid some of the plum scions that Joe sent me (and I was bragging about doing so well), took a hit. The Black Splendor and two of the Beauty scions are still doing great still, but I noticed that some of the other ones that had great buds on them last week started drying up. One of my two mandarins that I grafted on my lemon tree for fun also died.

Phillip

Ramon-Tj · Posted: Tue 25 Mar, 2008 7:46 pm

sorry to hear that Phillip, so far the avocado and Mandarin are looking good green as the first day. the grapefruit on the other hand doesn't look to good. Fist time I grafted with parafilm I felt like it could break easily and not put enough pressure on the bud I found my self adding a piece on top of the parafilm from the other tape or rubber bands. I wish you luck

Ramon

JoeReal · Posted: Tue 25 Mar, 2008 8:15 pm

Parafilm requires gentle slow pull, not sudden jerks. Do not be in a hurry, and then it will obey your wishes.

For most citruses:

Best temperature for callousing is 75 deg F to 85 deg F. If you have consistent day time temperature not exceeding this, it will have the best success rate. 70 deg F would be the lower limit and 90 deg F would be the higher limit of good callousing that result in most successful grafting or budding. These temperatures are the best, and they should not kill your grafts. If your grafts die at these temperature range, it could be another issue unrelated to temperature.

When it gets over 90 deg F, shield with aluminum foil.

dauben · Posted: Tue 25 Mar, 2008 9:18 pm

JoeReal wrote:

For most citruses:

Best temperature for callousing is 75 deg F to 85 deg F. If you have consistent day time temperature not exceeding this, it will have the best success rate. 70 deg F would be the lower limit and 90 deg F would be the higher limit of good callousing that result in most successful grafting or budding. These temperatures are the best, and they should not kill your grafts. If your grafts die at these temperature range, it could be another issue unrelated to temperature.

When it gets over 90 deg F, shield with aluminum foil.

I think we got up to 85-90 degrees, but I was using aluminum foil. If a scion buds and then dies back due to excessive heat, is there any possibility of it rebudding with secondary buds? The scion still looks good (with the exception of the buds).

I can't believe the black splendor though. It is just going gangbusters. Both of the beauty plums that I grafted still look good also. The vesuvius and one other looked great, but were the ones that got zapped by the heat. The field station plums never took though. Could have been operator error since it was half dark out when I did it.

Phillip

JoeReal · Posted: Tue 25 Mar, 2008 9:28 pm

Phillip, remember that I posted before that it takes some time to know if grafts were successful or not. Yes, there is a big chance that some correction is going on. Make sure your grafts are sealed and tight at the union. You may have to re-wrap the union again with parafilm. Sometimes, strong winds can dislodge the union. Also if other branches are rubbing and hitting your grafts, those are killers too. Over here, I had nice grafts going but then basketball from kids hit them. A little crack on the developing callous can kill the scion.

Not to discount some insects too. Sometimes, they just love the unique cultivar that was recently added and they bore through or sample them and they die off due to wilt and other diseases introduced by these eager tasters.

But, it isn't over yet. As long as the stick has still some green in them (rubbing off bark to test it, but don't have to, as you know just by waiting), there is always a chance that they can recover. I've had a persimmon graft that I thought died. It didn't sprout until the next year. I haven't pruned it off because of its awkward location. So just wait it out, who knows, it is just shedding off excess leaves that it cannot support while the wounds are being healed.

dauben · Posted: Wed 26 Mar, 2008 1:19 am

JoeReal wrote:

Phillip, remember that I posted before that it takes some time to know if grafts were successful or not.

Thanks Joe. I was thinking that that was an issue of having a scion that looked good and after a year it may die off due to incompatability with the rootstock.

JoeReal wrote:

So just wait it out, who knows, it is just shedding off excess leaves that it cannot support while the wounds are being healed.

Perfect. This was the answer I was looking (or hoping) for. Scions still look good and I have no plans on removing them, but after breaking dormancy quickly and showing some growth, the leaves seemed to die back when the heat hit us.

Here's the black splendor graft done a few weeks ago:

Phillip

Skeeter · Posted: Wed 26 Mar, 2008 11:21 am

Ramon-Tj wrote:

I was grafting this last week some Avocado, grapefruit and Mandarin I got from Phillip this last week and I cut my self, good thing I had duct tape, I hope the buds do o.k. with this heat.

You guys need to learn to put the band aids and tape on before using the knife-- it is much less painful!

_________________
Skeet

Millet · Posted: Wed 26 Mar, 2008 1:04 pm

Joe, your 80-1 tree (or what ever number you at now), could be the #1 budded tree in the USA. - Millet