Wow, I can't believe that agressive pruning won't help it. Is the tree very old?? I am asking because I got one in May of 09 and I have pruned it maybe 3 times. Mine just finished blooming and I tipped most of the branches and now I have about 40 or so new branches growing on it, all the way down to just above the graft line. I don't know much about grafting tropicals but i wanted to share my experience with mine...very vigorous!!
Andrew

Andrew:
The tree is not very old, but it is mature (about 3 years old). I have pruned it somewhat agressively and it still has not sprouted on its trunk. It just gets lots of new growth on top and to the sides... The tree was about 8 feet tall before, now it is around 7 feet. Well, maybe it is getting near 8 again!

The reason for such tall trunk is that I lost a couple of lower branches in the past... So, I just wanted to see what the more experienced grafters on the forum think of my idea...

Oh, did you get any limes on your keylime yet?

thanks.

Mostro......I have never heard of grafting new branches onto the trunk to keep your tree small. I would think that more aggressive pruning would do this automatically. I have heard of people wanting to add culitvars onto their existing citrus tree...so I am sure that it is possible to do what you are thinking about. I just don't know if it is the best way to accomplish your goal. Good luck in whatever you decide.

Sometimes if you score the tree down low it will throw up a new sprout just below the damaged area. I have done it a few times in the past. I just pretty much partially girdled the tree and it sent up new shoots. You could also probably just hack the entire canopy off down to a couple feet above the graft and it would send out new shoots as well. I would wait until spring if you went that route. You don't want to encourage new growth at this time of the year.

I haveto agree with Jsvand here. I have done that same kind of pruning. Currently I have done this to one of my mango. It has been years since I have done this to a citrus tree. The end result was beutifull. I will say that it was kind of nerve racking for me because I have limited resources for any tropicals. The nice thing about most citrus is you see the result of the pruning faster then on some of the other tropicals(at least that is how it is for me.).My keylime that I tip pruned grew a ton of new branches. It seems like I am finding new growth daily and the bulk of it is on the main leader of the tree. I would say it didn't even take a full week and my tree is indoors under lights. I would just chopp it down maybe to 4 feet. Sounds drastic but I bet you wont have to worry about the grafting and once the new wood matures, you may end up with a more productive tree in the end. Maybe I can take a pic and show you. Right now I am not feeling so hot and I have a lot of Christmas stuff to finnish. I am tring to find a good website to purchase a nice Kumquat tree for my dad. Not easy to do when you can't have citrus shipped from FL,CA, or Texas!
Andrew

Andrew are you sure you can't get trees out of CA? I thought it was just citrus can't go into CA?
I am pretty positive you can get stuff from the nursery in my link. Being in FL, I have never ordered from them, but I have heard good things about there trees.

Here is a link that might be useful: citrus

I tried one place and after I entered an item that was citrus, it redirected me to a page that explained that they were not able to send me there trees do to ctrus quarantine. I can't remember the name tho but was very pleased with what I got from somewhere else. The funny thing is they came from California but were certified not to have any problems...seems strange how some can ship them and some cannot.
Andrew

Alright, I will do something in spring, if the tree does not send shoots on its own. The reason I don't want to drastically prune it is that I am pleased with the tree's shape. I just want to add a couple of branches lower to the ground and I don't want to lose next year's limes (if I drastically prune)...

I will probably try the grafting method first (non-destructive); if that does not work, I will try the girdle method mentioned by jsvand5; and if that does not work, I will probably just leave it alone and wait for a freeze to do the work for me!

thank you all...

In further comtemplation of your question I think that the grafting method will probably not work for you. While you can easily get the graft (bud or side veneer) to take. The tree is unlikely to push growth at that bud since most of the growth energy, hormones, etc will be flowing to the top of the tree. When I graft, mangos for example, the bud graft will often take, but you get no push until you bend the trunk of the rootstock, above the graft to signal the tree to start pushing buds that are dormant. The rootstock stops sending it energy to the top of the plant.

I was thinking the same thing Harry. Apical dominance is going to make your graft have little to no growth.

Harry:
Sadly, yu are probably right about the graft not growing much (if at all).

What about this? What would happen if I air layer a somewhat larger branch and once it roots well, then I approach graft it to the trunk. The branch can keep its own roots and thus have its own source of energy to grow on. Once the branch is of good size, I cut it root system off. I figure that the tree will then continue to feed it as if it was always there?

I've only done grafts a couple of times, but the approach graft I did (limequat on sour orange) grew very well while it was attached to its roots, even before the sour orange rootstock got chopped off.

Remember, I would be grafting a keylime on a keylime, not a different variety...

Just another idea...

Thanks for your help...

I think your best bet would be T- budding. These types of grafts heal pretty quickly on citrus trees, and even if the graft doesnt produce a branch, it will heal over and you have not cut any branches.. but i would just prune the shyt out of it

post a good picture of the tree and i will draw lines where to prune it early spring

Here is a link that might be useful: image hosting site