Good luck!! You are braver. Please keep us updated!

I will post updates and put some photos of the progression!

Edit. I used cleft grafting technique and I will try to root the left over branches of the lemon.

A question for you with experience of grafting; I left the newly emerged and developing leaves on the scion(three top leaves), just for the purpose to show the contact of the cambium layers(possible wilting of the leaves).

Right now the leaves are still perky and good looking, but should I remove them and possibly cut the scion to two-three nodes?

Virtually all citrus are "grafted" by T-bud; it is the easiest to learn and the most successful. Some use chip budding; but that requires a bit larger scion and rootstock. I wish you luck with cleft grafting; please keep us informed.

John: the graft/scion does still look healthy, I will post pictures when I have the time. But anyways, keep your fingers crossed everybody, please!

As people has requested, here's some good news. We did a 4 day vacation and I was hopeful to see growth on my first graft attempt ever. And I did. The scion looks really healthy and firm, no leaf drop or else. I'm happy! :)

And the day we went off to vacation, I grafted a another branch of the calamondin(a bit more mature than the first grafted scion) to my seed started mandarin rootstock, and it has not dropped one of those two leaves I left on it. They'r looking good and firm. So my hopes are high on that one too!

And all the lemon and mandarin cuttings look good so far, just hoping for one of each variety to make it.

Pictures probably tomorrow, now it's just past midnight here so sweet dreams everyone!

Congratulations, I hope. It is still pretty soon to know if your graft has taken.

John: It is early to tell the outcome, indeed, but I'm hopeful :)

Nice to hear that you are grafting, wish you success in your future grafting, post some pics.

After soon to be 2 weeks, the first calamondin scion grafted to lemon roorstock looks good.

After a week or so, the second calamondin grafted to mandarin rootstock dropped its two leaves. Slight swelling of the nodes and no browning of the scion. It ain't dead. And with this one the scion matched better to rootstock what comes to size.

No pictures still..

Time will tell, hope for the best and fear for the worst.

I wish you all the best. I have only one graft and one air layer this season. I grafted white Mulberry on to a black mulberry two weeks ago and air layered my fig tree to make a tree for my friend. I think it's going well.

After a couple of days over three weeks, the first calamondin grafted onto lemon rootstock is doing good. No growth, but no leafdrop either. The leaves are a bit curled down, but I don't worry about it. Looking healthy.

The second grafted calamondin to mandarin rootstock turned brown and dried from the tip. I tossed the whole plant, rootstock and everything away. I'll start a few new seeds for rootstock purposes only.

What comes to lemon and mandarin cuttings, they'r fine. Some minor leaf drop at the beginning when the cuttings adjusted themselves, but nothing dramatic. They'r just hanging around, I change the water every three days. Let's see if they make it! :)

In just one night, the calamondin grafted to lemon rootatock turned halfways black/brownish. After some inspection, it seemed to be a fungi attack. The graft were nicely healed in such a small time.

The result: the plant went to the compost bin. New seeds are on the way, and after 24h two seeds have already germinated!! Mandarin 'Nova' from storebought fruits is the new rootstock plants.

The mother calamondin plant is going absolutely crazy, way over 100 fruitlets and 50ish more flowers and buds still to go. But, new growth is going strong and vigorously which was my main goal for this season. Need to get some size for that poor little thing :)

Although the grafts failed, which is always an option, this was good experience for the next grafting attempts!

I've had good results with citrus grafts in the past. My favorite was a side bark graft. Using a very sharp knife on actively growing (increasing in diameter) bark, I made a shallow, downward cut about 1 1/2 inches long on the rootstock. I then inserted the thinnest, flattest scion I could find. I scraped the outer layer of bark off of both sides of the scion that would be covered by the rootstock flap. I made certain the cambium cells remained on all 4 cut surfaces, then wrapped the graft with 1 or 2 rubber budding strips as required. The rootstock top wasn't removed until the graft knitted together. In the event of a failure the rootstock was ready for immediate regrafting. I experienced very few failures using this method.

Here is the progression of the white mulberry graft on to black mulberry seedling ( I know, not citrus theme :))

idea111 · More Info

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