Fairchild Mandarin Graft
Back in March I got the wild idea to top-work my Meyer lemon tree. The tree was large and healthy, but what do you do with that many lemons? It wasn't going to fruit this year anyway due to the hard freezes in February. So I decided to chop it down, and graft on more cold hardy mandarins and satsumas.
I ordered citrus budwood from the Texas A&M Citrus Center in Weslaco, Texas, and used Joe Real's citrus bark graft method. The weather kept fluctuating, and we had some fairly cold nights throughout March, so I worried whether or not the grafts would take.
The grafts didn't grow at first, but they stayed green, and finally when the weather started to warm up I noticed some growth. All of the mandarin/satsuma grafts on the Meyer lemon, and all of the blood orange grafts on the Everhard naval were successful, with one exception. One of the Dobashi Beni grafts on the Meyer lemon failed, but the other one is growing well. The Minneola tangelo grafts were successful, and the Chandler I grafted onto the Sarawak pummelo is still green, but it hasn't grown yet. My attempt at t-budding failed, but I kind of expected that since the bark wasn't slipping really well.
I had also done a mix of cleft and whip-and-tongue grafts on my plum trees, and I was very pleasantly surprised to see them all take. So far, I have not noticed any difference in the vigor of the two graft methods. I need to do a little pruning to direct the tree's energy into the grafts and not into side-shoots. Special thanks to Dr. Wife for letting my borrow her camera to photograph the grafts.
I ordered citrus budwood from the Texas A&M Citrus Center in Weslaco, Texas, and used Joe Real's citrus bark graft method. The weather kept fluctuating, and we had some fairly cold nights throughout March, so I worried whether or not the grafts would take.
The grafts didn't grow at first, but they stayed green, and finally when the weather started to warm up I noticed some growth. All of the mandarin/satsuma grafts on the Meyer lemon, and all of the blood orange grafts on the Everhard naval were successful, with one exception. One of the Dobashi Beni grafts on the Meyer lemon failed, but the other one is growing well. The Minneola tangelo grafts were successful, and the Chandler I grafted onto the Sarawak pummelo is still green, but it hasn't grown yet. My attempt at t-budding failed, but I kind of expected that since the bark wasn't slipping really well.
I had also done a mix of cleft and whip-and-tongue grafts on my plum trees, and I was very pleasantly surprised to see them all take. So far, I have not noticed any difference in the vigor of the two graft methods. I need to do a little pruning to direct the tree's energy into the grafts and not into side-shoots. Special thanks to Dr. Wife for letting my borrow her camera to photograph the grafts.
Ruby Blood Orange Graft
Minneola Tangelo Graft
Kinnow Mandarin Graft
Pixie Mandarin Grafts
Beauty Plum Graft
Failed Dobashi Beni Satsuma Graft
