Grafting on 6 week old seedlings possible ?

[tedburn]

I have a lot of different 4-6 week old citrus seedlings and they are growing nice. So I thought if in this age grafting heals faster. The more difficult handling due to the only 8 to 10 cm high seedlings would be the price. If my theory of faster healing is true.
I will try it the next days. But if everyone has experience, it would be interesting to hear about ?
Best regards Frank

[Vlad]

What type graft do you plant to use?

[poncirsguy]

I have grafted on seedling 15 inches tall at 4 months age.  The buds take a lot longer to grow than those grafted to bigger stock.

[tedburn]

I tried it just now in cleft grafting, I took a Star Ruby and a Dunstan seedling on flying dragon each. The size of the seedlings was  between 3 and 4 inches. But it was difficult because the plants have been in trayers with other plants and the trunks are still very smooth. Dunstan was still easier than Star Ruby.
Other difficulty was to fix and get pressure at the grafting point, also with the smoth trunks.
So I have done it and will see the next days if they dry out or stay green. So wether it works or not It was a new experience. The reasons for the grafting have been that the seedlings are in good groth and the hope to have in spring already graftet plants for getting bigger plants in autumn. But in ever case next grafting will be done with older seedlings 😅.

[Millet]

Micro grafting is a rapid growing development commercially.

[tedburn]

Yes Millet I' ve seen on you tube, but this is still more complicated and needs special technics and tools.

[poncirsguy]

I grafted a New Zealand lemonade tree to  Seville sour orange root stock August.28 2020.  I had 1/3 inch bud growth by October 1-2020.  4 months later I have a tree with 61 inches of linear growth now starting to push 12 more shoots.  The Seville orange was 2.5 years old at time of grafting.  There is about a 50% difference in the tree sizes of what I grafted 2 year 8 months ago.  It to is a N.Z.L on Seville sour.




I wish you well on your grafts.  Both of my trees are doing well.

[vnomonee]

While not a seedling, I grafted a Satsuma bud from a grocery store fruit branch onto a tiny rooted cutting. (I live in the North East so not really worried about spreading diseases.) The cutting is no more than a 1/4 inch wide. I did a cleft graft on top which died, but the bud graft under it took and has calloused. Just waiting for it to grow now, I have just uncovered it as the bud graft is a bit over 4 weeks old. 

[Millet]

Good job with the bud graph, as the rootstock you were using was not a good round shape.

[Till]

I did a lot of grafts onto 1.5-2mm thick Poncirus seedlings. I had nothing better at that time. Most grafts took. But I would not say the healing was faster as compared to thicker seedlings. How fast a graft takes is just a matter of how fast the rootstock is growing. If it is half dormant you must wait for a longer time than if it is growing at the moment. Temperature plays also a very important role. Everything done at summer temperature is healing very fast. Healing is also fast in spring due to rapid growth. Late summer is possible but healing is slow then. That is my experience.

[tedburn]

Til, this was also the thickness of my seedling trunks about 2 mm. If thy take I will post pictures. Good summarize of you to grafting conditions.

[tedburn]

50% success, after 10 days the Dunstan/FD graft is growing, as expected the Star ruby/FD graft failed.
But very early grafting is possible though difficult. As it seems there is nearly no lack of growing as if grafting older plants. Regards Frank

[Tropical Bay Area]

I would think it could work but I would still wait if I had time

[lebmung]

I always like to do cleft micrografting on 1-2 mm stems.
The reason is that a tree gets stronger, graft union will be completely heald and almost invisible after few years.
Micrografting is not be be confused with microscope apical tip grafting used to obtain virus free new plants.

[poncirsguy]

The root stock 'Seville sour' is 2MM diameter and the scion 'New Zealand lemonade' is about 1mm diameter.  Is this what you mean by micro cleft grafting

[tedburn]

Hello Poncirusguy, yes this is is about the same size than mine. I will still add an update picture