Multi-grafted Citrus Show Off

[elouicious]

Major delay with the posting but finally getting around to showing off the cocktail citrus tree

Huge shoutout to NissanVersa on here who provided both grafting material and expertise!

So we started with a commercially bought Eureka variegated pink lemon that we slowly worked up to a 25g pot only to have winter storm Uri kill it back to the ground- with destruction comes opportunity though and so we had a nice large rootstock with many watershoots for grafting to work with

First is a Moro Blood Orange-




Second we have Improved Meyer Lemon-



Third is a new hybrid Supernova-



Fourth is Murumi Kumquat-



Finally is Brown's Select Satsuma-


Two that we tried but probably didnt make it are persian lime and grapefruit-

I will probably try to add some more varieties to this down the road and make a bushy vase structure as well-

Tips and thoughts appreciated!

[K-Rimes]

I just did a similar project on my gf's parents totally inedible pomelo. Now has: xie shan, pixie, pink shaddock, meiwa kumquat, orogold grapefruit, and a few others. Really excited to see these cocktails take off!

[sc4001992]

elouicious, congrats, your grafted tree looks great!  Probably good your rootstock took over, it is better to graft new varieties on.

Kevin, yours looks like the grafts are older, nice shaped tree, and good job on the graft placements. I have an older grapefruit tree that is multi-grafted with many varieties and it gets many fruits every year and it's only one tree so it saves some space in the yard. Unfortunately I'm a fruit addict and still have too many other fruit trees that it's hard to walk about in the backyard. I will take a photo and post later.

[K-Rimes]

Thanks Kaz, that was a tremendous amount of work to graft all the arms that I did so I am really happy they all worked. The success rate on citrus was very good, easier than I thought.

Love the concept of cocktail trees, will just have to see how hard it is to manage the growth of several cultivars.

[sc4001992]

Kevin, I have multi-grafted all my in-ground citrus trees. It's not that hard to keep different varieties managed on them.

[elouicious]

Kaz you are certainly one of the many inspirations for this project!

Kevin you and I must swap tricks to keep the many cultivars happy-

I am trying to cocktail as many trees as possible because unfortunately I am not in a position yet where I have found my long-term planting area.

My career necessitates probably a few more moves and while the plot in Houston has been a fabulous learning experience I will likely need to take as much variety as I can with me-

[K-Rimes]

Kaz you are certainly one of the many inspirations for this project!

Kevin you and I must swap tricks to keep the many cultivars happy-

I am trying to cocktail as many trees as possible because unfortunately I am not in a position yet where I have found my long-term planting area.

My career necessitates probably a few more moves and while the plot in Houston has been a fabulous learning experience I will likely need to take as much variety as I can with me-

Number one thing I keep doing is going over there periodically and knocking off any suckers below the graft. It suckers endlessly it seems but some branches are slowing that down and focusing on the graft. Unfortunately while i was grafting, their dog came in and grabbed all my scions and mixed them up so I have basically no idea which branch is which, will have to wait till they fruit.

Kaz definitely inspired me in a lot of ways. A really solid collector and person.

Kaz, any tips on how long to wait before allowing fruit to hold? Probably not this year I would guess (year 1)?

[sc4001992]

Kevin,

You may get flowers/fruits in 1 year after your graft takes, but just remove all the fruits so the graft can grow more. In 2 years you can let it have a few fruits and the fruit should be normal size. I like to leave just one fruit on the 1 year old graft until I can see that the fruit is the correct one for the variety then I cut it off so energy goes to the grafted branch.

I did let some 1 year old grafts hold 1-2 fruits on some grafts before and the next year that branch did not grow much at all. Lesson learned, don't let it hold fruit until 2 years has passed. I only do this on some rare varieties so I can confirm its the real deal. On my sumo graft, after 2 years it had 14 full size fruits and it did not effect the growth of the branches.

[ScottR]

I have made a multi-grafted citrus too many years ago here on the Central Coast with our cool Summers I have had the best success in late Spring to Summer here. When or what time of year have you all done your graft's. Great looking trees louicious and Kevin.

[K-Rimes]

I have made a multi-grafted citrus too many years ago here on the Central Coast with our cool Summers I have had the best success in late Spring to Summer here. When or what time of year have you all done your graft's. Great looking trees louicious and Kevin.

I tacked these on in August. It was dang hot while doing it!

[sapote]

I just did a similar project on my gf's parents totally inedible pomelo. Now has: xie shan, pixie, pink shaddock, meiwa kumquat, orogold grapefruit, and a few others. Really excited to see these cocktails take off!

The pomelo is a graft on a rootstock, and so the cocktails were grafted on the pomelo branches?

Why not cut off those nasty spikes that could scratch the hands? Any good reason to leave them on? They can cause a flat tire I'm sure.

[sapote]

The success rate on citrus was very good, easier than I thought.

Did you use V cut or one-side cut on both parts?

[K-Rimes]

I just did a similar project on my gf's parents totally inedible pomelo. Now has: xie shan, pixie, pink shaddock, meiwa kumquat, orogold grapefruit, and a few others. Really excited to see these cocktails take off!

The pomelo is a graft on a rootstock, and so the cocktails were grafted on the pomelo branches?

Why not cut off those nasty spikes that could scratch the hands? Any good reason to leave them on? They can cause a flat tire I'm sure.

I would suspect it's a grafted tree, but part of me wonders if this was just a pomelo seedling or something. The quality is absolute garbage. Truly inedible. It was actually purchased as a meyer lemon by my gf's parents. It grows really well though so I figured it's a good call for grafting. I look forward to seeing it bush out over the next few years.

I didn't know you could clip the spikes off. They are awful, but I figured it may wound the tree or leave it susceptible to infection if I clip too much.

Not sure what you mean v-cut vs one-side-cut? I did a standard cleft graft with a long low angle V on the scions. They're sealed in buddy tape and then I used nursery tape to really smush the graft union, it's my go to method for any grafting. Sometimes I will change the angle of the V cut on the scion to re-direct the angle of the branch for aesthetic reasons.

[elouicious]

I have made a multi-grafted citrus too many years ago here on the Central Coast with our cool Summers I have had the best success in late Spring to Summer here. When or what time of year have you all done your graft's. Great looking trees louicious and Kevin.

These were some winter grafts done at the same time as the Jaboticabas