Could someone please explain this to me?

The minimum order amount is 6 buds per variety, which is equivalent to one budwood (one stick).

What is one bud vs one stick? How does 6 buds equal one stick?

Thank you!

There are 6 buds on each stick. So, the minimum order is one stick per variety.

If you use bark or cleft grafting you really need only 2 buds per stick.

Sunshine, those two lower ones I would keep those, you actually only one to grow strong fast, then later prune and create your scaffold branches.

Then you can prune again for more stouter branches.

Bob, I will do just that, thank you :) I want it to grow fast. I am excited to have the Shiranui, my most favorite citrus!

I'm with you, i know you do good. I like to see an exchange program among these forum members. There is already so much available among us to share.

Well, at 2.5 weeks, at least one of my Siracusano grafts is still green and starting to heal. I literally have no patience lol

Do not reattached tape of the graft, you might hurt the fused graft. Kelly, love your tenessitee, your efforts will pay of more and more.

Ugh oh, Bob - too late! I wrapped It back up with new tape, but very carefully. Hopefully I didn’t damage it.

Thank you for the kind words! I’m almost at the point where I only want to graft new trees instead of buying them lol. It’s very addictive :)

Love hearing that!!! Many will follow suit. Main purpose of forums is what you are doing. Potting mix for citrus is so basic and cheap and that is the part that most people have problems with. They think that there is a secret formula out there somewhere.

There come a time that you will only grow the finest tasting fruits and not even look at lesser.

You than have reach the price.

Question: since my trees will be coming inside for the winter in the coming weeks, should I wait to bend the top of the rootstock down until they go outside next spring?

Kelley, notch the branch after the grafted bud, so more nutrients go to the graft, I notch two parallel lines sometimes, because the tree heals the wounds fast.

How exciting, Kelley. I am following your progress and taking notes from the experts here. I have budwood arriving today and am trying my hand at grafting for the first time ever so I have been practicing, watching videos and gathering my supplies. I know it is late in the year but my trees are down in the gh, warm and still actively growing. Here is hoping for the best for us. I am excited and a bit nervous. Lol

Thanks, Sunshine! I now remember you saying that before:)

Jinny, how exciting!! What varieties did you get? I found FruitMentor to be the most helpful on YouTub, but only with added advice from those here, especially Sunshine and Bob :). Do keep us updated and I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you!

Jinny, you will be a pro grafter in no time :) Don't forget to share your success!

These Canadian Guys and Gals they are a very smart bunch, good to read their post.

Sunshine, with her appropriate name bring rays in this forum,than ther is Amy and Brian with his well manicured tree’s. Did I miss any?

Sorry, one more update lol: I decided to check the remaining Siracusano and NZL grafts as I realized that I left a few petioles on and found 6/6 buds still green! If one of each makes it, I’ll be a happy camper!

NZL

Femminello Siracusano

Kelley, here is my Shiranui bud graft done on my Friendship tree end of September, it had notches and the bud started to wake up. Here it is now with halfway broken branch, it took off:

Kelley, Sunshine, the grafts look good! Way to go! I ordered the Femminello Siracusano, Boukhobza Orange, Avani Tardivo Ciaculli, Thong Dee Pummelo, Kao Pan Pummelo. The budwood arrived this afternoon and so far I cleft grafted 2 branches on my Vaniglia Sanguinelli with the Boukhobza, and I also grafted each of the Femminello Siracusano and Thong Dee Pummelo onto flying dragon rootstock. I will do a few more tomorrow. I tried to work quickly but I had fumble fingers and had problems wrapping the graft with the plumbers teflon tape that I used. I am sure I messed up. Lol. At least I did not slice my fingers. Oh well, practice makes perfect, or so they say, right? Bob, yes, very good to read their posts. Love the help they offer and appreciate all of the knowledge that our friends willingly share. :) Will try to post a few pictures tomorrow. Have a good night.

Jinny, speaking of slicing fingers, I sliced my finger today while grafting kaffir lime on lemon rootstock. It very rarely happens. Was not paying attention :)

The kaffir lime grafts on orange did not take last year (in case Johnmerr is reading this).

Jinny, no stopping you, these are articles pleasent to read. Kelly you are starting to collect a bunch of nice veriaties. This forum is going crazy.

Sunshine, when you are ready to cut of that rootstock branch, cut it of at about 45* degree at the graft, that it will be healing nicely. You might want to do it with a small pruner, not a knive.

Sunshine, that Shiranui sure grew fast!! It looks great! My successful grafts are so very slow to grow - I must be doing something wrong. I’ve been hesitant with offering too much light/sun, fearing that they will dry out. My Lunario cleft graft still hasn’t woken up and I grafted it in August. It’s now under a light, so hopefully it will do something.

Jinny, what great varieties! I’ve never heard of the Avani Tardivo Ciacull, but any type of Italian citrus has to be fantastic, right? :). I’m also interested in the Boukhobza - it seems to be spreading in popularity. I’ve wanted the Siracusano since I found out it was available from UCR. I hope everything takes for you :)

Thanks, Bob! I decided to give away my Eureka since I have so many different varieties of lemons now. No need to make room for a regular lemon variety this winter :)

Jinnylea very interesting varieties your collecting!!!! Do you ever have the citrus collecting bug lol . The Boukhobza very good the other varieties I had to do some research on because I never had heard of them before . The Avani sounds really interesting and delicious.

Everyone great grafting but please watch your fingers lol. Sunshine so nice to see that your Shiranui is really coming along!! Kelly fingers crossed for you grafts, they still look nice . Kelly I would never get rid of my Eureka it produces so many lemons and are they good .

Brian

It is so funny to watch you guys getting so confident in what you’re doing and the way you are given your best effort, nice.

Thanks, Brian! If it was a grafted tree, I would keep it, but it’s an RBF tree from Home Depot (rescued after it completely defoliated) and I would rather it go to someone who really wants it :).

I love this thread, it makes me want to try my hand at grafting. Not that I have room for more citrus... but I'm growing lots of cactus/succulents from seed and it's unlikely I'll have room for all of them when they grow larger. It's fun to give them away, anyway. Just have to find more spaces for more grow lights.

Years ago (about 20 years ago or so) I took a grafting workshop at the Arnold Arboretum. It was lots of fun, and I did have some success :-) We all had to sign a waiver saying the arboretum wasn't liable for a list of things. I remember the list included both death and embarrassment, among other things. I never could understand why they included embarrassment, lol.

What time of year is the best time to try grafting citrus? I would guess spring?

Time to try and find my grafting knife!

Lazydog, I have definitely experienced embarrassment during my grafting trials lol! I am no expert whatsoever, but my grafts are doing surprisingly well in this cooler weather. My trees are all flushing new growth, so I figured I’d give it a shot. Plus, the CCPP would only send the budwood now and not earlier in the season. I’ll let the experts weigh in, but I’d say go for it! :)

Lazy dog, it all depends on the temps you are keeping your tree in, mine hovers around 70, good enough for grafting. Other than that, spring is best, what is even better if your rootstock is actively growing.

My citrus are in my greenhouse, thermostat set to 55°F. Sunny days get up into the 70's. I could keep grafts in the house where temps are high 60's, low 70's. I think I'll plan on spring. Now to look for suitable rootstock :-)

Wow I’m loving all the photo updates of your grafts kelley! It looks so fun when you watch a bud begun to push out and you see all those razor thin and tiny leaves reaching out. So excited for all these varieties you guys are grafting!

Bob is right, I was just thinking yesterday or the day before that I need to carefully consider which next citrus to purchase if I do purchase another. I definitely shouldn’t get one I can find easily in the store, unless of course you use alot of it cooking like a standard lisbon/eureka lemon :) I’ve kept 3 citrus I sprouted from seed that I thought about grafting in the future. They are navel, an unknown mandarin, and a moro. But I think I might just let all of them go to compost or experiments for outdoor cold temps

Sunshine, Brian, slicing fingers is no fun. I spoke too soon above. I sliced my finger good Friday. I needed a super hero bandaid to make it all better. Lol

Kelley, I love the Italian varieties. Bob and everyone, thanks for all of your encouraging words and support.

I did a cleft graft with bud from the Avani Tardivo Ciaculli on C-35 rootstock and a bud graft on KUH rootstock/Fina Sodea mandarin. Kao Pan cleft graft on Carrizo , another bud stick of Boukhobza w/cleft graft on flying dragon. A few pics.

I did go back and wrap the exposed buds w/teflon plumbers tape, then wrapped the whole graft in aluminum foil.

LOL Jinnylea, your wound might heal faster with that bandaid :)) Nice work with grafting, do not open the graft tape for minimum 3 weeks, no matter how curious you get :)), don't spray the graft area so water does not get under the tape and get moldy. Good luck!

Bob, here is my Shiranui graft progress from my above October 10th post, I only left two branches and it is having new growth again:

Because of low light levels and grafting time not being optimal, it puts out only few leaves at a time.

Sunshine, would it be best to wait at least 4 weeks or even 5 before I peek and unwrap? I know it will be hard to wait but if it is for the best I will... Thank you for the tips, I was going to give my plants a good shower down in the gh tomorrow so I will move the grafted trees to a safe place so they do not get wet. That Shiranui graft is looking good. Nice job, sunshine!

Thank you! You can wait 4 weeks or more, but the signs of grafts taking or not taking will be obvious in just 2 weeks, you will see those grafts that take, they will stay green. The grafts that don't take will turn yellow and then black in just couple of weeks.

Good to know. Thank you, sunshine! :)

When you see new growth on your sion just keep the buds that pointing outward. Just keep two or three towards the end.

Another thing, when you cut of side branches always cut of flush, don’t leave any small stubs.

Trees have a hard time sealing the wound and furthermore diseases start after only 8 hrs meantime. It is therefore important that morning sun dry of the leaves soon.

Thank you, Bob. Appreciate the help. :)

Jinny, hope your finger has healed ok. I have a nice scar from about a month ago - hopefully a nice reminder for success LOL! Sunshine, what are you feeding that Shiranui?? It’s growing so fast!!

A few of my bud grafts didn’t make it on my Siracusano and NZL grafts, so I decided to do two more cleft grafts of the Siracusano since I can buy an NZL from FWG if need be. This time I’m going to wait a full 4 weeks before unwrapping.

Kvetch, don’t give up! How big is your blood orange seedling? Mine are significantly slower growing than other varieties.

Kelly those wrappings are looking friggen good!!!!

Kelley, those look good! The Shiranui you talking about is not that long of a branch, only little over 3 inches since grafting. I fed the little tree last week with the half of recommended dose of fertilizer, see in this picture

You should see the Shiranui bud graft on my Friendship tree, its 13 + inches long since grafting it end of September. It blew me away :) I have not fed the tree since September 2nd, the vigor of the tree and/or the bud is amazing:

Kelley, the moro seedling is much too small lol. All my other ones were alot larger but they died from my neglect. A few died from soil staying too wet during all the rain in the summer. The remaining seedling survived but I’m not sure if that means it is a strong one because it’s only about 1.5” tall. The others were at least 3”. I still have one more blood orange I keep forgetting to eat since spring/summer lol! I’ll experiment with how good they could still taste and sprouting the seeds. I think its a Tarocco

Update: I cannot contain my excitement - my Siracusano graft is finally waking up and should sprout in the next few days!! This is the only graft from the CCPP budwood to survive the puppy attack.

This is also my only successful t-bud graft thus far.

Congratulations Kelley! I am happy that it worked. The only grafts I have ever had take are cleft grafts...maybe easier for a novice like me. Keep us updated!

Thanks for the kind words, Laura! Hopefully I will be able to add Villafranca to the list ;).

And we have lift off lol

Kelley,

It's just gorgeous. You must be a proud mom!

Have already emailed UCR about scions for this year. He can send them in September.

It's still kind of late but oh well.

Congratulations on your beautiful Siracusano.

Nancy