Fruit salad trees

[JustJoshinya]

last week i got my order of budwood from the ccpp and i decided to attempt some fruit salad trees, i will probably give them away to family and a few friends for christmas presents. Fruit Salad tree #1 has grafted to it, Pineapple Sweet orange, California rojo orange, valentine pummello, New zealand lemonade, ponkan mandarin, and giant key lime. Fruit Salad tree #2 has grafted to it, Valentine pummelo, new zealand lemonade, templexminneola, ortanique tangor, cara cara navel, and giant key lime.Fruit salad tree #3 has grafted to it valentine pummelo, ortanique tangor, ungli tangelo, new zeland lemonade, templexminneola, and CA rojo orange. its been 9 days since ive grafted them and they are still covered in parafilm ive been so tempted to unravel the parafilm and check on their progress but most info i could find suggested leaving them wrapped for 21 days to ensure healing i decided to chip bud graft them as last time i attempted to do any grafting i tried T-bud grafting but i dont think the bark was slipping and none of the grafts took all dried out... fruit salad tree #1 and #2 were done on rootstock donors labeled "limoneira/carrizo" fruit salad tree #3 did not have a rootstock label on it, it was a rio red grapefruit donor so im not sure what rootstock it is or if this affect the grafts taking. im going to give the grafts another week before i unwrap them and check on their progress. here are some pics the big tree is the rio red donor #3.

[mrtexas]

Wait until spring to unwrap. Citrus not likely to grow much in the winter even in souther CA.

[fyliu]

I did Valentine, kishu, and some others one time and the first 2 took. Then the pummelo took over the tree. Pummelo is much stronger than other citrus. I don't know how to prune for control without affecting production. They still havr not fruited.

[starch]

My 'fruit salad' citrus is pretty boring. I grafted / budded Bearss Lime and Lisbon Lemon onto an unknown (very thorny, but not Mexican) lime rootstock.

[JustJoshinya]

So i went ahead and unwrapped the trees to see what buds had take and which had not, fruit salad tree #1 ALL grafts have taken and are green and cambium has healed them to the tree so im very pleasantly pleased, fruit salad tree #2 3or4 grafts survived 3 look very green and secured while one of them is healed onto the stock but is kinda brown but still has some green so it may or may not survive, i believe the 2or3 grafts that did not take on this tree were not lined up just right. while my biggest loss was on the rio red grapefruit donor tree fruit salad tree #3 had only 2 grafts survive and heal on, the rootstock on this tree was a much larger diameter than the other two trees and was much harder to line up the cambium layers than on the other two trees i believe this played a large role in most of the grafts not taking. so what i learned from this time was that placement of the bud is more important than anything i also cut much closer to the surface on the first tree than the others so i believe taking a smaller amount of bark off can aid in the graft taking or rather keeping the cambium layers closer together by cutting a much thinner slice out of the bark on the stock can keep a closer cambium layers which will increase the rate of success. i still have quite a bit of budwood to use so i will attempt a few more fruit salad trees when i pick up some more rootstock donor trees. i still have ALOT of budwood left from my order from the CCPP to do some grafting with. i am waiting until january to get some C35 seeds which i will grow out some of my own rootstocks and be able to graft at a younger age so i will be saving some budwood until then.

[Millet]

JustJoshinya, I will have some Sour Orange seeds in a couple weeks.  The fruit are now in the process of turning orange, so it should not be long.  If you would like to grow some Sour Orange rootstock, let me know. - Millet

[JustJoshinya]

I would LOVE some sour orange seeds to grow my own rootstocks for some more grafting! ive been looking locally for them in like markets and fresh produce stores but i doubt i would find any. Thanks millet that would be awesome.

-Josh

[Tony714]

Hi,

I know this is old thread but want to  see how are your salad trees doing?  i know to know if your tree is able to produce enough each varieties for you.

thanks,
tony

[Millet]

I presently have Sour Orange seed if anyone wants to grow Sour Orange seedlings for grafting, or a Sour Orange tree.   Seeds are fresh, as I will sent them still in the fruit.