The Tropical Fruit Forum

Here is a picture of my Kaimana Lychee grafted onto a Kohala Longan. The Kaimana scion was already pushing a couple inches of new growth so I am doubtful these will take but with some luck, the dormant buds will push. I plan on patenting my new clothes pin grafting technique, lol.


I also innarched my Kaimana to my in ground Kohala Longan and this approach graft has even less probability of taking than my cleft grafts. I had an extremely difficult time making the cuts on both trees and the semi hard wood is very difficult to line up. I probably have one inch of cambium to cambium contact and only on one side of the graft. This is probably the most difficult graft I've done. The Kaimana is in a pot on a chair next to my in ground Kohala.








Simon

I performed my first Lychee grafted onto Longan a couple days ago. I used Kaimana as scion and Kohala as rootstock. Unfortunately, my Kaimana had already pushed several inches of new growth so I'm not holding my breath on these grafts. I tried to look for other dormant buds on my Kaimana and found a few along with a few buds that were just starting to push. Here are a couple pictures of Lychee buds.




Simon

Sam, the more you water, the higher your pH of the soil is going to be. Water quality is important but a top dressing of organic compost and mulch is highly beneficial. See what happens if you use rainwater or pHed Reverse Osmosis water. Your plant will be so happy but it can be a lot of work.

I occasionally drench my in ground trees with pHed buckets of water. You can also use Sulphur to gradually lower the pH of the soil. Sulphur can kill or inhibit the growth of many organisms including beneficials so use with caution.  I recommend the organic compost and mulch along with animal manures or even urine.

Ochris, that's an awesome fruiting Potted Kaimana! Did you like the flavor of Kaimana? I like it but wish it had more Lychee/Rose flavor like Brewster. There is a good chance the Kaimanas I've tried were not harvested at full maturity so I'll save my judgement until I get to try a fully ripe fruit off the tree. Please keep us updated!


One of the secrets of Lychee is that the fruit will taste as good as the soil the tree is grown in. This is one reason why the same variety of Lychee grown in one location can taste drastically different from the same variety grown at a different location. When Lychees are fruiting age, it's good to cut back on Chemical fertilizers and use more natural fertilizers like composted steer manure, fish pond water or kelp/fish emulsion.

Simon

Hey Tropicdude, that does sound like it's because of the scion. I've done a couple DSGs with slight greening on a leaf or two and they were successful. From your previous post, it sounds like you used scion with buds that were just starting to push. Although I've had success with scions with buds that already pushed, it is not ideal. Don't give up, plant lots of seeds on a staggered schedule so that you can select the best ones for DSG. By staggering the planting of your seeds, you should have availability of seedling rootstocks at the proper copper leaf stage when your scions are ready.

Simon

Hey Tropicdude, did you use monoembryonic seeds and were the seedlings in the copper leaf stage? I've done 10 DSG and have 8 takes and two failures. My two failures were likely due to poor cuts on the scion and I also remember that the scions were slightly less thick than the width of the combined double rootstocks.

I am doing one test to see if I can get success on Double Stone Grafts if I leave a nurse leaf. This graft was performed on 07/21/15 and the scion is still green and buds are beginning to push. By leaving the nurse leaf, I feel that the seedling may have less probability of aborting the current sprout and pushing a new sprout from the seed, which has happened to me even on DSGs that did take. When I see a thin brown callus on the graft union, there is a high probability of success.

My major worry with leaving the nurse leaf is that the rootstock will push new growth from the leaf node.

Simon

Does anyone have more information like what types of fruit are going to be there? I'm a member of CRFG but haven't gone to any meetings because my daughters keep me busy. Thanks,

Simon

Sorry Zarafet, I don't have any videos. If I had three hands, I would definitely be taking videos of all my grafts, lol. My wife has to distract my two kids while I work in the yard so there's nobody to hold a camera. There are many great videos on YouTube regarding cleft grafting mango. Here is one of my favorite grafting videos; https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=19m18s&feature=youtu.be&v=hzBerXm1WCY

I've had many many failed mango grafts before I started getting successful and my best advice is to keep practicing. You can use practice on ornamental trees until you feel comfortable with your skills. Make sure to use the freshest scions you can obtain and make sure there are some buds on them or prep the scion by removing leaves to stimulate new growth buds. If your rootstock is strong and healthy and starting a current vegetative flush, the grafts will take much easier. Let us know how your grafting goes!

Simon

I've done successful bark grafts, veneer grafts and cleft grafts on HD Manilla rootstock. Cleft grafts are the easiest for me but I prefer to use green wood instead of brown wood if possible. I'll try to take some pictures when I get home.

Simon

You're welcome Sam. If you want to go all out for your mycorrhizal fungi and beneficial bacteria, you can do a molasses drench but it's definitely not necessary. It just helps to provide food for some of the organisms in the inocculant mixed.

Simon

Every NDM, including one I grew here in SoCal, I've tried has been extremely sweet but it does lack complexity in my opinion. They can have a very subtle nectar or flowery flavor. I wonder if multiple rootstocks will help with cracking issues with this variety? I've got a double stone grafted NDM that I recently grafted and planted out so I'll report back when I eventually get fruit.

Simon

Are you guys/gals going to remove some nearby Longan growth to redirect more energy into the Lychee scions? This type of grafting looks really promising from preliminary results.

Simon

You can see in this picture that some of the spores from bagged soil or mycorrhizae products actually produce a fruiting body in the correct environment. This Double Stone grafted Lemon Zest is from my very first Double Stone Grafting attempt and I really wanted the graft to take so I mixed up a few different types of bagged soil. I used Miracle Grow potting soil, EB Stone Organics, Happy Frog and Fox Farms Ocean Forest on top so that the Ocean Minerals would leach down and not be wasted. You can see the yellowish mushrooms next to the newly pushing LZ graft.

When the mycorrhizal fungi have taken up residence in the roots, the roots are noticeably thicker and very crunchy and brittle. I may have made a mistake by inoculating the roots so early, prior to transplanting into the ground, because I broke some of the crunchy roots as I was transplanting it into the ground. I would have probably broken much fewer roots if I inoculated while I was transplanting into the ground. This plant certainly seems pretty healthy considering it was grafted on 06/18/15.

Simon

By the looks of your excellent looking tree and the relatively large size of the fruit, not to mention the number of fruit you have, i am guessing that you may get sweeter fruit if you cut back on water. Have you been giving it a steady supply of potassium?

Thanks again for the pictures. I was worried that Coconut Cream would be an extremely slow grower here but your pictures tell a different story. I bet the fruit will flavor up for you in the near future.

Simon