Author Topic: Advantages Of Micro-Grafting Citrus  (Read 2506 times)

Millet

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« Last Edit: May 03, 2018, 06:32:36 PM by Millet »

brian

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Re: Advantages Of Micro-budding Citrus
« Reply #1 on: May 02, 2018, 01:34:33 PM »
I don't understand what their actual claim is.  It sounds like they are simply claiming to be able to bud-graft onto smaller-than-usual rootstock?  2mm diameter rootstock sounds difficult to work with for t-budding, but I'm not an experienced grafter.
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"The Micro-budding process begins with rootstock, a small plant with approximately two-millimeter diameter stem germinated from a seed in a controlled environment," Skaria explained. "Buds from desirable mother trees are then hand-grafted onto the rootstock, using proprietary technologies. In less than six weeks, the buds have sprouted and are ready to be planted in the field."
As far as I can tell the claim for denser plantings is simply based on the trees costing less, rather than a difference in growth.

Ah, yes... I found another article that has more explanation.  That's exactly what it is:http://www.growingproduce.com/citrus/the-orange-revolution/
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“The whole idea is to create a system that reduces costs to a point where you can plant more trees and get higher returns, especially in the first 10 years of the grove’s life,” says Skaria. “Research has proven that if you plant more trees, you will get higher returns. Now, we have a system that makes it affordable to plant more citrus trees, resulting from drastically reduced tree and planting costs.”
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Skaria refers to his program as a “bailout” for Florida citrus that is bending under the weight of greening. Micro-budding is based on a modified cleft graft. This is generally difficult to do on young tissue, but a Texas nursery has developed a system to make citrus trees on a commercial scale.
more on cleft grafting:  http://www.fruitmentor.com/grafting-citrus-trees-cleft-graft
Skaria doesn't explain what his proprietary technique is, but I guess that what keeps it proprietary.   Still manual, it says

brian

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Re: Advantages Of Micro-budding Citrus
« Reply #2 on: May 02, 2018, 01:38:47 PM »
found the technique here:  https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/citrus/nursery/L2305.htm

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Basically, the technique involves germinating rootstock seeds in test tubes, then decapitating them at a couple of months of age to insert a tiny bud into a small, vertical incision into the decapitated stem. Within another couple of months, the newly budded plant will have achieved typical liner size for transplanting into the field or into a container to be grown on to acceptable size for ultimate use

Samu

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Re: Advantages Of Micro-budding Citrus
« Reply #3 on: May 03, 2018, 04:38:13 PM »
Found in Youtube someone showing this "Micro-budding" technique:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbMHv5l5xA0
Sam

fyliu

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Re: Advantages Of Micro-budding Citrus
« Reply #4 on: May 03, 2018, 05:34:05 PM »
Found in Youtube someone showing this "Micro-budding" technique:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbMHv5l5xA0
This is grafting, not budding. Microbudding uses a single bud without the surrounding wood. The method I know about even dissects the bud to remove some layers first.

Sylvain

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Re: Advantages Of Micro-Grafting Citrus
« Reply #5 on: May 04, 2018, 05:56:30 AM »
Anyway this is not "micro" at all, maybe "mini" that's all.
Half  of my graft are this size, and if you work with Australian or PNG citrus you can have to graft 1 mm diameter or less scions.

The post is about something else, it is about bud-grafting on few months old seedling. And this is not easy at all!