Citrus Growers Forum

bencelest · Posted: Wed 16 May, 2007 3:38 am

Heres the update o my fuyu persimmons as the mother plant

A nashimura wase graft

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3 different grafts for matsumoto wase persimmons
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JoeReal · Posted: Wed 16 May, 2007 4:05 am

Wow, what vigorous grafts you have Benny!

We have proof that persimmon can be easily grafted if it is done our way. Both timing and technique. Most people that I know have poor success rate, less than 50% take.

Was expecting to see if you have flower buds on those grafts but could not find any at this stage. Those are from the same batch of scionwood that i also grafted, but most of my grafted persimmons this year have already flower buds.

I think the culprit is that if I graft them to Nishimura Wase (Coffee Cake Persimmon), the new grafts will have blooms. It seems that the grafts unto my Fuyu have no blooms at all. So it could be the base stock that might be contributing to the observed difference. You have grafted unto Fuyu, so perhaps this is the reason why you don't have blooms on yours. But I think, it is still too early to tell. You may have blooms later.

So perhaps I will take this note and compare next year. The Nishimura Wase might be a good interstem to induce consistent blooming and fruiting.

bencelest · Posted: Mon 21 May, 2007 3:20 am

I am seeing some sort of a 'bump' at the base of the petiole on those new leaves. But it can be just another bud or something else. Yes, it is still too early to tell. Whatever it is I am happy with te results.
BTW what do you mean by 'good interstem?'

JoeReal · Posted: Mon 21 May, 2007 9:44 pm

bencelest wrote:

BTW what do you mean by 'good interstem?'

Interstem is another cultivar that is between the rootstock and the final grafted cultivar.

One uses of interstem is to overcome grafting incompatibility. For example, you cannot graft a Pear unto a Fuji Apple. But now I have, thanks to the interstem. Last year, I grafted several Winter Banana Apples unto many various apples including the Fuji Apple. This early spring, I grafted Warren and Harrows delight unto the winter banana and they are growing like crazy. So to the untrained eye, they can only see that European pears and Apples are grafted together.

It is definitely applicable to citruses. For example, if Flying Dragon rootstock will not take on lemon, then graft a navel first then graft your lemon. For my case, I have not been successful with grafting Finger Lime unto my lemon, so I have grafted a trifoliate unto it, and hopefully next year or later this year would be able to graft the Finger Lime and then I would have successfully added that cultivar. You might be able to improve the taste or influence the quality of the grafted fruits by using appropriate interstems.

A good interstem can sometimes have interesting effect such as making the cultivar grafted to it bear fruits much quicker or be very productive, like what I have observed for the Coffee Cake Persimmon. A good one is thus having the characteristic that you would like. Some of it could be dwarfing effect, others could be precocious effect, and what may be good for one goal may be bad for another. So depending upon what you want, you just find suitable interstems.

These types of knowledge are rarely found in the literature but often comes from most hobbyists like us. Our observations may not have commercial applications but could only be potentially exploited for the future. As long as we report honestly and share it, there will be progress in our knowledge. Of course we need to try it in various conditions and report back. This way, it would be very efficient, as funds to support these kinds of research are being cut-off by our governments.

In many cases, I have more than one interstem with citruses, as I continuously regraft my trees and find interesting observations in the process.

bencelest · Posted: Tue 22 May, 2007 3:15 am

OH... Goody.
Thanks for a detailed explanation.
And This is another one I learned today.
My mind is now going roller coaster as to what I am going to do.
I have a nectarine that would not take my green gage but would easily take a plout and my plout would take on my green gage easily so I am going to use the plout as my interstem because of location is ideal and my nectarine is vigorous and not as sweet as I would like to have it.
Now I have a use for it.

Thanks again maestro.

Benny

bencelest · Posted: Thu 24 May, 2007 2:56 am

Thiis is a repost of my cherry trees. I was successful grafting a Prince Ranier to my Stella cherry tree and I got the Ranier to fruit for 2 years but the graft died afterwards because of noot having any leaves. Only fruit on that partiicular branch(graft). Heres my prince ranier

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And this one is Stella. This year the fruit is so sweet and can easily rival the Prince Ranier.

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CanesFan · Posted: Sun 27 May, 2007 12:19 am

Benny, may I ask what the age and rootstock of your Stella cherry are? I've had one in the ground here in North Carolina for about three years now; I'm reasonably sure I won't achieve the success you've had with your California grown tree but am curious just the same - Thanks.

bencelest · Posted: Sun 27 May, 2007 12:14 pm

Canes:
My Stella cherry was plalnted on a whiskey barrel 4 years ago. I bought it perhaps 4 feet tall. The same year it grew tall flowered but only bore one fruit, the next year about 2 dozen and the third year a bunch. This year, not much but I think it needs a new soil and soil expansion. My Prince Ranier was planted on the ground 2 years ago and as you can see it is lush and green and growing freely and lots of fruit.
So considering, my Stella rootstock was a year old when grafted and when sold as a 3 year old tree.
It is only a guess.

Heres my Stella last year. On the top left fruit bunch was grafted Prince Ranier. As you can see, there was no leaves, only fruit. It died after 2 seasons.

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And Prince Ranier
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bencelest · Posted: Tue 12 Jun, 2007 11:05 pm

Updates:
7/8/07

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bencelest · Posted: Fri 13 Jul, 2007 10:25 pm

Here's one of my multigrafted plouts. It appears that the plout can take a lot of different cultivars. Here's a sample:
Note: The Fuji apple is a different and separate tree but the rest are grafted to a plout. I have mistakes grafting them for location of the graft but I am learning and improving as time goes on.

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Eres my green gage who took over the multiigrafted white peach.

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Laaz · Posted: Sat 14 Jul, 2007 12:15 am

Ok.... We all get together to go to Benny's at night with many bags to collect the fruit... Wink

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JoeReal · Posted: Sat 14 Jul, 2007 2:44 am

Laaz wrote:

Ok.... We all get together to go to Benny's at night with many bags to collect the fruit... Wink

Then after that, you can go to my place, I'm inundated right now and cannot cope up with most of the harvests. I have like 40 gallons of wine from cherries, berries, pluots, plums, peaches going on. Still I have plenty left over. Already the whole neighborhood is fed up with fruits! Please come and raid our place, but lay-off on my Calamondins, Mandarinquats and Valencias!

harveyc · Posted: Sat 14 Jul, 2007 4:39 am

Benny, my Dapple Dandy pluots are mostly ripe already. The birds are getting most of them. Sad

What you have labeled as Tilton apricot appears to be a peach of some sort. Is that yet another tree? I can't see enough to tell.

Looks nice!

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Harvey