Nice work Tom! Amazing results!

Excellent job!

Congratulations Tom.

6b steve

Tom those are some amazing results, congratulations on your success. You also picked some great cultivars. The cocktail is absolutely the most juice filled interesting tasting fruit I have grown. You will love it.

Evan

Thanks, everyone!

Evan, I've wanted a Cocktail since 2013, but no place ever had one in stock online... so I figured, "well, if I can't find one, might as well graft one!" If it's half as good as you say (and you know your citrus), then I'll be a happy camper!

At some point, I'll be giving a good number of these trees away to caring homes. I still have more grafting to do from my own trees! Valentine and Meyer are in high demand, apparently...

-Tom

Good luck!

I don't want to be the proverbial cold wet blanket, but I define "success" a bit differently. Success to me is when the bud has grown, and grown enough to be self supportive. There are a lot of things that can happen until you get to that point, that is, the point of having a new tree.

My T-bud grafts of 3 1/2 weeks ago are all still green after the unwrapping, but I have not yet seen growth from those buds. A data point to note is that all the budwood still on my desk (and in the bags) - is still green.

again - good luck and please do keep us updated! - George

All 3 of my grafts have failed. The scion shrank and turned brown. My guess is that Toms graft will grow when the trunk is cut and snapped over to force the buds. However I did not feel my tree made it until a half year after the graft started growing and all the graft wounds had sealed shut.

6b Steve

You seem to suggest an inverted T-bud is better than a regular T-bud?

Darnit George, don't be such a wet blanket! Haha. You're totally right, though. A lot can happen between now and a full tree, but where does one differentiate graft success? I mean someone could technically have grafts fail years after grafting due to rejection. I will say that the two failed grafts were quite brown/black, however. I suspect "native" buds stay viable for some time as long as they are attached to a twig and aren't allowed to desiccate; my experiment should shed some light on that hypothesis. Are you planning on forcing growth on the buds you grafted? I'll be forcing mine (as Steve has suggested) as soon as I can expect to keep them outside so they grow in full sunshine. It would be a shame to lose the growth to sunburn!

Steve, sorry to hear about the grafts. What were you trying to graft?

Dave, I've tried both... but for some reason, inverted-T just feels easier/better to me (not sure why). I'm sure regular T-budding is just as viable.

-Tom

I was grafting Danube sweet/sour cherry to North star seedling rootstock all 3.

6b Steve