When to let new grafts fruit?

[mbmango]

Shiranui grafted in September started pushing last month, including some flowers.  This is on a 5g Cara Cara I purchased just as a rootstock.  Since it would be fed by the nearest leaves only (yet to be fully formed), could it be allowed to hold fruit (assuming it could be secured so it wouldn't break the graft)?  Or would the fruit, as a sink, retard the growth of the remaining scion buds?

Another question is how to manage the remaining nurse branches?  Should I cut back progressively, proportionally to new growth, or is there some threshold of the amount of new growth when you just take them all off?

[Seanny]

Academic rate intelligence by testing for delayed gratification.
I’m very low on this since I let my grafts fruit ASAP.

A report I read that the sooner you cut off the nurse branch the bigger the graft grow.

[sc4001992]

Gerald, you little tree is too small now. The grafts in your photo really hasn't grown yet, it needs to grow another 6 months before you start cutting off all the other nurse branch. But you can start cutting some nurse branch to make the graft grow faster. I like to wait a little longer to make sure my graft has taken well and it won't die on me before I cut off all of the strong branches in case I need to re-graft again.

Also, the little flowers on you grafts needs to be removed. That little growth can't hold any fruits. Check out my sumo grafts on my 1yr old branch, it had 3 fruits on each grafted branch but I only left 1each to taste.

[mbmango]

Hmm, test scores vs happiness

Thanks Kaz for the tips.  I had already trimmed the original branches a bit to stimulate more pushes, plus tied them a bit lower to reduce any apical competition (not sure if that applies to citrus as much as other fruits).  I was wondering how long to keep the remainder since I want to keep the roots growing until the grafts can sustain them, so the 6 month target is useful.  So far, just rubbing off other buds for now.  Luckily I do have 3 other bushes with grafts also.  I did lose 2 grafts recently to some animal breaking them, but found 1 early enough to regraft it elsewhere.  Which reminds me to chicken wire the remaining ones just in case.