Beautiful pictures, nevertheless. Wonder why they covered the stumps?

They have already grafted them over. From what I saw they did two stick grafts per tree with lots of tape, sealed with some kind of pink compound, and then covered with the white plastic/paper. Trunks spray painted white to protect from sunburn.

Perhaps they have gotten smart and converted them to New Zealand lemonades.

Or Cara Cara orange, especially if it is California. Sunkist is pushing Cara Cara, partly because they can no longer compete in Meyer lemons.

I had the same thought as tropic, beautiful landscape in the photo! But sad to see all the tree stumps. The Meyer stumps were used as the grafting rootstock?

Yea the original graft line looked to be pretty low, about 6 inches, so they left about 12-18 inches of the Meyer stock and grafted on top. If indeed they grafted something like navels it will be interesting to see how they do, these are spaced pretty tight at about 12’x12’.

kvetch,

Doubtful the rootstock is Meyer; very few Meyers are grown on own rootstock; a few more from rooted cuttings. There would be no reason to keep Meyer roots; they are unpredictable and not strong.

Interesting indeed. I have no knowledge or experience of Meyer as an interstock (between the rootstock and the final scion); but I do know that Sunkist is pushing the Cara Cara; and the growers are getting more for Cara Cara than for Washington navel. Sunkist today cannot compete with me for Meyer lemons, as my production costs are 1/4 of theirs; and my shipping costs are 1/2. The future of Meyer lemons is Guatemala, New Zealand, and perhaps South Africa