Hi everyone. New [inexperienced] member here!

I love lemons, so I bought a 5 gallon semi-dwarf Libson Lemon tree from Costco last night, and I planted it this morning. I'd say it's about 4' tall.

I researched on how to plant these citrus trees on the web, and followed the directions wherever possible. One thing I noticed that seemed strange, however, is the location of the bud union on my tree. All the Libson Lemon trees at Costco had their bud unions relatively high on the trunk, but all the internet sites suggest that the union is supposed to be located much lower down--almost by the root ball.

Click on this thumbnail to see a [big] pic of mine:

[huge] closeup of the bud union:


Also, notice how the stem is substantially crooked at the union.

Based on what you see, do you think my is tree going to turn out okay? Please let me know if you have any suggestions considering I just planted it this morning.

Thanks!

Hi Hefty, welcome to the forum. Im about to give you my own personal opinion so just be aware that some of the other members may have a different one. I used to bud my trees way down low and then wait a year or two for them to get to a couple of feet tall. It occured to me one day that I can get a much bigger tree much faster by grafting higher on the rootstock. This will require some extra labor as far as keeping the sucker growth pulled off the rootstock but to me, its well worth it In addition, to getting an almost instant 2-3 ft tree.. you get better cold protection if the bud is grafted higher on a trifoliate rootstock. So, long story short, I graft most of my stuff high just like the photo of your lemon. No, Cosco is not selling any of my lemon trees but Im in agreement with whomever is producing them. The other question you had about the crooked tree... I feel this will improve itself over time. It looks to be a budded tree and they dont just pop ouf of the graft and go straight up, It takes a little time to get them going vertical.

Hefty:
I love your pictures clear and focus. What kind and model did you use?
Benny

When a plant is budded high it is more difficult to bank them for severe freezes. There was an older gentleman in New Iberia Louisiana that had all his plants grafted about 2 feet from the ground. In one of the severe freezes several years ago all his trees were lost. The ones that were banked had the top frozen but survived above the bud union. they were cut back after the freeze and by the following fall were again nice trees. If the plants are container grown they can be brought inside until the freezes are over. In our area most citrus is grown in the ground.

On the other hand, very low grafts can be covered by soil and get splashed during irrigation. This is likely to result in foot-rot diseases that the choice of rootstock was meant to prevent. So freeze or rot, take your choice!
I agree that, for potted plants using a vigorous rootstock like citrange or citrumelo, a higher graft more quickly produces a neater looking plant with a nice length of clear stem before branching.

Hi all--thanks for the feedback!

Ben--The camera I used was a bulky Olympus CAMEDIA C-5060. (I don't know much about cameras--my wife's the one who's into photogaphy. Ideally, I'd like to be able to take pictures that don't end up so huge, like the ones you see. However, I know better than to muck w/ her camera settings. )

Hefty:
Thanks so mch.

Hefty, welcome to the forum. We are glad you are a member. I like my grafts about 8 to 10 inches above the soil level. I believe your Lemon is grafted about as high as I've ever seen, but should be fine. I think Stan, is correct, that as your tree ages, the trunk will become straighter. The tree looks very healthy. - Millet

Buddingman's post moved from Off topic form to inground citrus form. First, I am Located in South East Texas. We do get occasional freezes in thi part of Texas. Most of our citrus is grown in the ground, Banking is the only sure way of saving citrus during a hard freeze. In 1983 we lost 70 large satsuma trees. These were not banked. We were harvesting many pounds of fruit from these trees. They could have been saved. In 1989 there were 9 trees in our back yard in Nederland Tx. They were banked to height of 4 Feet with pine bark grit. They were saved above the bud union and are still producing fruit today even they we no longer live at that location. One other not of interest, the fruit produced in this area is very high quality.