Key lime is susceptible to disease

lemon makes weak tasting fruit

calamondin is incompatible with sweet orange

http://ucanr.org/sites/ucceventura/files/57694.pdf

Interesting question as I would like to graft also. Thanks for asking :)

Thanks pip and John! John, that link is very interesting...thanks for sharing it. I guess I'm back to square one. I wish my Seville would produce fruit so I could get some seeds. How else can I get rootstock?

You should be growing trifoliate orange. You'd have a ton of seeds and seedlings for rootstock.

Dave where to get some to start? I would only need two or three but not 1000.

Laura, I would start here http://www.citrusvariety.ucr.edu/rootstock_seedlings.html and maybe split an order with a few people that want to learn to graft. The minimum order from treesource is 1 liter of seeds which is over 3000 seeds. That is a lot of rootstock seeds, but at $115 for C35 if you split that 4 ways that's only $28.75 per person, not too expensive in the grand scheme of things. That's my suggestion, then you know what you have and you can control the seedlings yourself. The other option is to buy a tree that you don't really want that's on a rootstock you do want and cut the scion off and try grafting to that. With an order of rootstock seeds you could have endless grafting attempts if you get dozens of them to sprout.

Evan

Since most are growing in pots, you can just grow seeds from some store bought oranges. Obviously, trifolate has benefits, but I think they are less important for you. Some disease resistance and cold hardiness are imparted, but those are less important for potted plants. Evan being in zone 9 can in ground and the benefits of rootstock are more important.

I have sprouted seeds of my own Moro, some sour orange, and mandarins for fun. You could use lime as well (they're compatible) and grow well on their own roots. You can get 6+ limes for a $1 and get 10+ seeds per lime. That's a good learner set :)

I plan on clefting a few of these in the spring as they'll be hardened and pencil thick at that time. I do have calamadins, but those are my experiment for in-grounding on the south facing side of my house. I may pick up an Arctic Frost for there.

Why not just buy some sour oranges, make marmalade, and use the seeds?

Is there any problem with using rooted cuttings that have grown out of rootstocks? I have two rooted trifoliate cuttings, which I assume are flying dragon, that I plan to use as rootstocks.

I have 5 pomelo seedlings ( from store bought fruit) and planning to graft different kind of citrus on them. We will see...

Those are all good ideas. Evan, yours is great, but unless someone speaks up on this thread, I would not want that many seeds ;-). I think the best thing is to do now is to try to get my hands on a sour orange and get the seeds. I remember using those growing up, but have never seen them here in the stores. I may call a Hispanic store and see if I have any luck. Fruity paws, do you mean to use the oranges or limes as rootstock? Vladimir, you have been lucky with rooting those flying dragon cuttings, I cannot imagine why they would not be good for grafting. Sunshine, I did not think pomelo could be used as rootstock, but may not have looked at the document above carefully enough.

there is a tri foliate plant on etsy. But not sure who the seller is and if it is worth?

I have grafted between 100-200 citrus trees with a success rate of 1 tree. I have found that unless someone is a citrus guru They will waste a lot of time for nearly nothing. Trees always grow best on their own roots and you might be better sprouting a seed from the fruit from your tree of interest. You will have a seedling tree with a mature top that is ready to fruit.

When I need new trees I have my spouse work a little overtime and even after paying taxes I am still way ahead financially and with my time.

You might consider how many trees you want. I have been around long enough to see that the people with the most trees seem to disappear from "reading" and I suspect citrus burn out. More trees = less attention per tree, more insect explosions, and increased fungal/disease problems.

6b Steve

Trifoliates grow around here. There are some a few blocks away (but hard to park). Maybe I will be able to collect some fruit for you this fall. You could plant one outside.

Thanks Dave and Steve. Dave, that would be nice, although as Steve mentioned (a very valid point), I already have "citrus overload", lol!! I certainly do not need anymore of them! Susanne, I did not think to check Etsy. Maybe I will try rooting again with the ST, it's just that now I have no obvious limbs to cut. I was not even trying to root the oro blanco, but a strong wind broke off a nice branch and I decided to cut it up for rooting....amazingly, I think all three chunks rooted!

That is awesome. I have not cut the ST on purpouse for rooting but the dogs with their tails. No clue if it will haben or not. To be honest, I have absolutly no clue what I'm doing. Rooting better on young wood? seasoned wood? How old are the branches from your moro that rooted? Just in water or Jiffy pots?. I can see propagating the trees we like to eat from the most.

I was looking at the Trifoliate on Etsy as its the cheapest - I saw $9 to $13 each prices, and I only want 5 or 6 tops for test grafting but unless you want to try dealing with a pencil, I'd have to assume like you'll still have to grow the rootstock out a bit

Laura, I definitely have had success with grafting to store bought fruit seedlings. Lime seedlingsreally seemed to grow quickest for me. Almost 50% on T/inverted T bud. I'm going to try cleft in the spring.

Just checked ediblelandscaping.com site and they have trifoliate orange seedling in a quart size for $15. I have bought from them several times and had good luck with the small sizes.

I have one Citrangequat being grown to size (intend on outdoor planting), and 2 upper branch cuttings established and being grown to size, its a trifoliate hybrid (as i understand it Trioliate - sweet orange-kumquat), has anyone tried grafting to these

Will edible landscaping ship trifoliate out of Florida (Quarantine) or is it considered Citrus too?

for having the citrus grow well in a container with limited space, it is important to use a variety that is slow growing? Is that the reason for drafting?

Grafting is for giving the roots that grow in the area you want your tree to grow.

Ex. Grafting a Meiwa kumquat to poncirus trifoliata will cause the meiwa to shut down for winter earlier and stay shut down through winter time heat waves. This might get 5 degrease colder safe temperature for your tree. This mean you could plant outside under glass and your tree would survive if your greenhouse heating went out on a -10F night with a low dropping to 13F in your greenhouse. The Poncirus will grow in hard pan clay.

Ediblelandscaping.com is located in Afton, VA and cannot ship to quarantined areas (Due to import restrictions we are unable to ship Trifoliate Orange to CA,TX,PR,FL,AZ,Europe...). They also offer Flying Dragon but are currently out of stock. Hope this answers bklyn citrus' question. I have bought a lot of small fig plants from them. Some of the plants were quite large for the price.

The reason that a citrus tree is grafted is to gain advantages that would not be present if that cultivar was grown on its own roots. These could be horticultural traits (such as tree size, yield, fruit size), a specific tolerance (such as tolerance to wet soil, pH, drought, freezes, salinity, soil type) and resistance/tolerance to certain pests and diseases (HLB, blight, tristeza, nematodes, etc.). Rootstock is thus chosen to capitalize on specific issues present in a specific area. There are dozens of choices when it comes to selecting a rootstock.

Rootstock is hard to purchase because the demand for it is low, unless you are a nursery. In that case it is unlikely you will want just a dozen seeds, hence sale is normally done in large quantities.

I think it would be a really interesting experiment to graft to Yuzu or one of its relatives - the plant is my most vigorous by far, and it seems to go into the deepest winter dormancy, which protects it from freak warm snaps. Once it wakes up, it seems to flush and grow at lower temperatures than any of my other citrus.

My plan was to grow poncirus trifoliata root stock and grow to 4 main trunks, While the tree is aggressive in growth, each of he 4 trunks would match the growth rate of a Meiwa kumquat. Rather than growing 4 Meiwa trees I could grow a 4 trunk PT top with Meiwa trees for 4 times the canopy in the same time. Didn't work.

6b Steve

I just noticed a new growth on my Kefir (FW) below the draft line. I asked this question before but did not really get a memorable answer. If I try to air root, or just cut of and attempt to get roots in a jiffy pot, if successful, I can cultivate and use as rootstock? I had one sucker in spring and it had very big leaves but definitely very different then Keffir. Probably not Flying dragon either. How old do I need to let it get on the tree until cutting off and still be useful for grafting?

Steve that is just mind boggling. Why didn't it work?

I think I may shelve the grafting idea for a while. It is fascinating though and something that I would like to learn. However, Steve's points did stick...I do not need to start creating MORE trees...lol!!

Susanne With a 0.5% success with grafting and an average time spent of 2 hours per graft it was not a good idea. I had quit on citrus and decided to let my 1 seed grown tangerine tree die come winter.

Cory sent me 2 of her extra seed grown Fukushu kumquat trees and a grafted Meiwa. Pip sent me a New Zealand lemonade tree and 30+ seeds for US897 citrus rootstock. Tom sent me seed for C35 citrus rootstock. Almost all the seeds came up. I had one graft out of may tries come up on a US897 tree, I sent my extra C35 and US897 trees to Pip and Tom. I have now got 5 Meiwa seedlings from fruit from my grafted Meiwa tree. I live to far north to grow citrus in containers unless the fruit it produces is small "Meiwa kumquat". All my citrus trees will be outside in ground but the 5 Meiwa trees. They will go in 30 gallon pots and can grow 10 feet tall before they hit the ceiling.

6b Steve

Laura, you can always make your own friendship tree: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship_Tree

Yes Vladimir! That is a very neat idea! With time and patience, I may be able to create one.

I am in the process of creating one now "from scratch" :)

First, I grafted clementine on it, next will be kumquat, lime, etc. The seed for it's rootstock I planted in December 2015 (California orange seed from the store bought fruit).

Just trying to get the tree stronger. Going to ask some friends to give budwood (friendship factor) on my special tree, when the time comes ;)

Go for it, Laura! You can graft one type of citrus this season and let it get bigger until next summer.

what an awesome idea.

I too am interested in grafting a "friendship" tree. I understand citrus overload, I was absent from this thread for a while because the bugs, leaf drop, etc. made me rethink how easy it is to grow citrus in pots up here.

Now that it is under control and my citrus collection has been parred down to include only what I like, I am selective in my citrus choices. To that end I want to graft over my Cocktail grapefruit, I have harvested 4 this month and the flavour is not good. I am assuming it is the soil, light, and temperature conditions, but, there is no point in growing what doesn't do well.

I looked at the compatibility chart jonmerr posted, my question is, it shows that grapefruit is compatible with mandarine as a rootstock, can mandarine be compatible as a graft on my grapefruit. Or am I tilting at windmills?

Laura, i have promise Suz, Flying D.. this coming spring as soon as the weather breaks. I can send you a couple, let me know.

Ubro, mandarin on your grapefruit should be fine, do one graft and observe, graft it on the leader branch, it can grow faster. I do all kinds of "experiments" on my trees :) that is how I observe and learn.

Bob, I may take you up on that offer...let me see what my thoughts are this spring...I have many trees...not sure I need more ;)

sunshine, thanks, some wonderful advances in gardening have come from "experiments" done by backyard enthusiasts.

Laura, for me no more room, last year added 4 new grafts, 2 S/T and 2 Valentine's.

5 lemons, 3 too much. 2 meyers, 1 kumquat, 2 S/T's but i'l keep them. Had some grafts the previous years. I'l take Tangelo's over lemons anytime.

Could not get Tahoe Gold as the gran finally.

Bob, I know about the mineola tangelo. What are the other tangelos like?

No experience except Page( keeper for sure).The one that a family member have in their have eat a few, Tahoe Gold like a lot but nada for me. Mandarins also always wonderful.Al my lemons been given away, have them on the counter still untouched, sorry. For me i can eat tangelo's and mandarins all day long not so much with lemons.