Finally got citrus grafts to take! My mistakes

[Alippincott]

I just wanted to share my excitement as I finally had success with grafting scion wood onto seedlings. I used cleft grafts.

The things I learned to ensure success based on my failures:

Time of year; I tried in the spring time and it didn't seem quite hot enough to get the juices flowing. I tried early July this time and each one took.

Grafting tape; I originally tried some crappy stuff from amazon that was basically cling film plastic. I dished out the big bucks for buddy tape and man is it 1000x easier to use and more successful.

Grafting blade; I recently learned how to sharpen knives. With my new grafts, I used a freshly sharpened knife which makes the cuts cleaner and straighter, which helps with not having gaps in your graft union.

Rubber band; I just started using a rubber band to TIGHTLY wind around the union to ensure good contact.

Sunlight exposure: I am not sure how much this affects it, but I did not cover my graft with aluminum as often (only about 1 week) and let the grafted branch be exposed to sunlight more. I feel like I saw a video where that seemed to signal to the tree to push out growth.

[Millet]

Congratulations

[growinginphoenix]

I started getting good results with my citrus grafting this year too. Super exciting!

[botanical pilot]

Found some success as well this year. Got New Zealand Lemonade and 2KR Lemon pushing. My Cocktail hybrid and Bearss lime are healed but haven't pushed yet. The Xie Shan mandarin and Atwood grafts failed completely.

We had a super cool June here in Portland which I definitely think slowed the healing process.

[Walt]

I bought 4 Pt plants for grafting.  They arrived in good shape, but just after they got here the temperature outside went up to 107F, I think that is about 45C.  So it is very hot.  I have little experience grafting citrus, but I would never graft apples or plums in this heat.
I have 2 broken branches on good citrus that are still attached to the trees they were on and they still look healthy after a few weeks so I think they could be grafted onto 2 of the rootstocks using approach grafts.  I don't usually like approach grafts but it looks like they might work in this heat. 
The rootstocks came in 4 inch pots and I've transplanted them into 5 gallon pots.  I haven't seen any new growth yet and I think grafts might better wait for active growth.  I need advice.

[Seanny]

I graft then up pot, or up pot then graft, within a few days.
Graft doesn’t need much water.
Rootstock should have enough new root hairs in a week, so there is no stress to the rootstock.

You could wait a few days to graft when temperature lowered .
Graft doesnt need sun to heal so put pot under shade.

My favorite grafting is inlay bark graft with thin scion, using a dull blade.
It’s easy to do a veneer cut on the scion with a dull blade, so it won’t cut into the wood.
A sharp blade is only necessary on some types of grafting.

[Walt]

All my citrus are in shade in early afternoon.
I may not have cooler weather until October.  We never know here. 
Thanks for the advice.  If the grafts fail, I can use the stock again and there are plenty of thin wood to risk  a few twigs.
Walt

[CharlieLoon]

I have had lousy luck with grafting. I just started learning.

All six attempts back in early June failed. I tried doing all as whip and tongue graft.

I tried again with six new grafts (the rootstock are all still alive so I figured I'd just shave a bit more off and keep trying...). One is sort of hanging in there--perhaps half of the scion has died back, but I grafted it about two and a half weeks ago (most died much quicker if they failed) so I'm hoping some of it continues to hold.

All I want is one Xie Shan...

I don't particularly enjoy grafting so if anyone sold a Xie Shan I would just but it at a nursery. But unfortunately they're not sold anywhere I can find in CA.

If my last graft fails I'll order more budwood and see if the third time is a charm.

The rubber band sounds like a good idea.

What kind of buddy tape did you buy?

[botanical pilot]

This animation from Fruit Mentor really helped me picture the cambium alignment when grafting. His videos overall have been a fantastic help to me in learning how to graft with all sorts of methods.
https://youtu.be/xTDoW-NsJTE?si=GHvvxaoibBaqBNQU&t=162

I recommend Buddy Tape or para-film - I think I like the former more but I've had success with both. I live in Portland so I was able to pick up some locally, but One Green World also ships.
https://onegreenworld.com/product/buddy-tape/

Picking the time of year is important, you want it hot enough that the citrus can grow but not too hot where the scion material dries out.

Don't give up!

[Millet]

Botanical pilot,  nice helpful post.  It surely  will help those members that want to learn.

[MasOlas]

Yes, thanks for the info! My 15' Manila is going to be brought down to 5' or so once summer is over and i plan to graft on Ice Cream , Sweet Tart and maybe 1-2 more. It will be my first whack at grafting so I'm excited to get started. I've mostly abandoned my veggie garden in favor of multiple fruit trees so it will be a nice challenge.

[TA900]

I have had lousy luck with grafting. I just started learning.

All six attempts back in early June failed. I tried doing all as whip and tongue graft.

I tried again with six new grafts (the rootstock are all still alive so I figured I'd just shave a bit more off and keep trying...). One is sort of hanging in there--perhaps half of the scion has died back, but I grafted it about two and a half weeks ago (most died much quicker if they failed) so I'm hoping some of it continues to hold.

All I want is one Xie Shan...

I don't particularly enjoy grafting so if anyone sold a Xie Shan I would just but it at a nursery. But unfortunately they're not sold anywhere I can find in CA.

If my last graft fails I'll order more budwood and see if the third time is a charm.

The rubber band sounds like a good idea.

What kind of buddy tape did you buy?

Did you ever get your Xie Shan graft to take?  I just attempted my first graft a week ago trying for xie shan as well.  I really hope it takes first try.  I'm switching up a young tango tree I have to hopefully a Xie shan because of its early ripening, which hopefully will be more successful in the sunlight I get.

[Alippincott]

I have had lousy luck with grafting. I just started learning.

All six attempts back in early June failed. I tried doing all as whip and tongue graft.

I tried again with six new grafts (the rootstock are all still alive so I figured I'd just shave a bit more off and keep trying...). One is sort of hanging in there--perhaps half of the scion has died back, but I grafted it about two and a half weeks ago (most died much quicker if they failed) so I'm hoping some of it continues to hold.

All I want is one Xie Shan...

I don't particularly enjoy grafting so if anyone sold a Xie Shan I would just but it at a nursery. But unfortunately they're not sold anywhere I can find in CA.

If my last graft fails I'll order more budwood and see if the third time is a charm.

The rubber band sounds like a good idea.

What kind of buddy tape did you buy?

Did you ever get your Xie Shan graft to take?  I just attempted my first graft a week ago trying for xie shan as well.  I really hope it takes first try.  I'm switching up a young tango tree I have to hopefully a Xie shan because of its early ripening, which hopefully will be more successful in the sunlight I get.

I found my most successful graft type is bud grafting in early spring. I did like 12 bud grafts, and I had all 12 take, including one that looked pretty bad. I did 7 Xie Shan and 5 Yosemite Gold.