Grafting citrus fruits

[nch]

In this video, at the 10:15 mark, you can see the man grafting unripe citrus fruits (he said all kinds, such as Pomelo, orange, and mandarins) to a citrus tree. I have never seen anything like this. Wonder if we can do the same thing with Anonas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrFLeoclcpY

[fyliu]

Thanks for the video. What climate and time of year is he doing this? The fruit size corresponds to September in SoCal. I wonder if it will work here with our dryness but without the unusual heat of this year.

Is it that hard to sell citrus trees there that they have to do this? Or is it his own tree?

[nch]

Fang, it looks like he owns a nursery. I don't recall he said what time of the year, but he said he grafted the trees for sale at the Lunar New Year. He also said pomelos are grafted when very small, but wait for the oranges to be close to maturity before grafting them.

[WGphil]

http://www.treeof40fruit.com

This guy did stone fruits and has 40 types on one tree.

[fyliu]

The difference between this citrus grafting and the 40 stone fruits one is the stone fruits were grafted as branches in the traditional way and then they flowered after a few years. This citrus method is grafting the actual fruits. I didn't think it was possible since the fruits need a supply of nutrients which won't be available until the graft took and the connection became stronger.

I was kind of disappointed that the 40 stone fruits tree image is an artist rendering rather than a real photo. Basically, he thought it's a good idea at the time but didn't realize that those fruits won't flower at the same time in the season or that a few would be really strong and take over. So he ended up not being able to get a good actual photo.

With this citrus grafting method, he can make sure the customers really see a tree with a bunch of fruits growing right on it, maybe while the tree is in a pot too small to naturally have all those fruits by itself. Anyway, i just appreciate it as grafting with a non-conventional part of the plant. It must be pretty tough to make a living. All the other nurseries are probably doing the same thing, so you need to have trees with 100 fruits if the competition trees have 99 fruits. It reminds me of a South Park episode where they had to stay in the forest in WOW to keep killing midgets to build up experience points before they are ready to take on the boss. These people are master grafters.

[Bhkkatemoya]

Fang,
He did that in September.  This video was done in Vietnam.  It's definitely not hard to sell citrus tree there at all. However, most people would buy their citrus at the market instead of planting their own.  He was an expert that came to the camera man's house to help multi graft/bud different varieties into one tree. 

For those who were having problem with understanding the video, he said to leave the bud on there for 20 days, then cut the top near the tape off so the bud can sprout.  Also to use green wood instead of old wood. 

Very interesting video, I'll have to experiment this on my citrus soon.   Thanks for sharing this nch

[nch]

I think people buy these kinds of plants at the New Year just for ornamental purposes, like they would buy a bouquet of flowers. They want a tree loaded with fruits, especially golden colored ones, because it symbolizes prosperity and fertility for the New Year.

[fyliu]

Bud? I thought he grafted entire pommelo fruits.
Thanks for the insight. I failed to learn Vietnamese from my mother.