I started grafting various verities to this old Armstrong Satsuma today and had a couple of questions. Am I making a mistake by not whacking off more of the limbs and grafting closer to the trunk? My thoughts are that the outer limb grafting would allow me more opportunity to graft different verities of citrus. Would grafting closer to the trunk increase the rate of growth of the graft?
What do you think?
Karl

Your grafts are fine , in my opinion it's the variety that tells the vigor in which the scion grows

Variety certainly has influence on the vigor of grafts, but I asked Joe Real what factors control the vigor of grafts and he believes it has a lot to do with both the location ( and vigor) of the recieving site as well as the vigor of the bud or graft material.

I have done a number of different grafts with the same variety--some that grew as much as 4 foot in the first season--some that have not grown 4 inches in several years. My limited experience does not disagree with Joe.

I think your choice of where to graft is about what I would do to maximize varieties and chances--good luck.

I think you will have better luck limiting the scion to 3 buds.

Thanks for the advice. If you look closely at the center of the picture off to the back side of that large limb there is a Ponkan that was grafted last fall. It survived well through the cold weather this year. Most of these grafts are Ponkan at the top followed by Owari and Washington navel at the lower levels. I put the ponkans at the top because of their upright growth.
Karl