how easy is this species to root two years ago i planted 10 seeds each of poncirus trifolate and the flying dragon the only seed to sprout at all was the regular poncirus none of the flying dragon sprouted. anyways the plant is just under 2 feet tall green and healthy but really slow growing.about 2 months ago i grafted a piece of it to a pumelo seedling and that graft has grown almost as big as the main plant did so i will have rootstock material to root i am just wanting to know if it can be rooted fairly easy or is it tricky to get to root. pomelo does really good on its own roots airlayers. but the poncirus is more resistant to several of the soil deseases.have thought about just using pomelo seedlings for rootstock till i can get some poncirus plants big enough to graft to. i am hopeing that with the plant growing faster on the pomelo rootstock that it will produce fruit faster because of the faster growth maybe, maybe not. i have a few more seedling pomello that i can graft to. i should be able to get enough scion wood from the seedling to make about 5 grafts. hopefully without harming it. also before anyone asks the poncirus is in a 1 gal pot the roots have just this year made it to the bottom of the 1 gal. as slow growing as it is i am afraid to transplant into a 3 gal pot and do not have any 2 gal right now. i may just have to make a really good draining soil mix and put it in the 3. the plant is healthy and not rootbound so would hate to kill it so i will prob get the scions off of it see if it lives than transplant if it starts growing better
I have several poncirus that I have air layered from rootstock sprouts off of my satsuma. It usually take a couple months to get roots started before I cut the air layered part and pot it. Two the tops that I potted earlier this year have just started to put on new growth and will be grafted this fall when it cools off. I don't see a problem with growing poncirus on pomello (pomello effcts on taste won't matter), but if the poncirus you are using is from the seedling it will take at least 5 years before you get blooms--is there anywhere you could get mature poncirus budwood? Then you could have fruit in less than 2 yrs. Skeet
i donot know of anyone that is growing the pt on purpose there is a tree that i have been keeping en eye on because the people let the rootstock outgrow the tangelo the rootstock is now about 12 feet tall and they just cut the tangelo off it it has very wrinkly fruit sorta yellow like a pt it may be a hybrid poncirius x ?? for a rootstock not sure how long the hybride rootstocks have been around but the plant has been there for at least 14 years. i can never catch anyone home to get a cutting or a fruit for the seeds. since the pt can air layer fairly well than i will use that method till it decides to produce fruit not really heard of to many people eating the fruit. was wanting to use it as a mother plant for seeds wonder if i grafted a piece to an adult plant if that will help it produce faster. the pt i grafted to the pommelo is growing way ways faster has grown to almost 2 feet in less than 4 months so i would think it will reach flowering size faster than the one on its own i will have to graft a few more and may graft a piece to an adult plant if i had the property i would like to experiment with that stuff more. the only experiment i have active with any citrus relative is a seedling white sapote. i took a bud off it and grafted it to a seedling that is in a pot that was growing really fast and now the bud is grown into a 2 1/2 foot tree so was wanting to see if it produces before the plant in the ground the scion came from. would be easier to get a air layer or scion wood from an adult plant but wheres the fun in that lol. ty for you're input now i know when i get big enough pieces of the poncirus i can air layer them
There are some members on another forum that have mature PT and FD trees, but they are in SC and can't send citrus to FL. I got FD seeds from FL DPI last year, but they have quit supplying homeowners--worried about spreading disease through grafting--so they stopped supplying disease free budwood and seeds--that oughta work! You are probably correct that the faster growing PT on the pomello will fruit sooner-- and as you say, not many people eat or even taste PT-- and far fewer do it a second time. Skeet
thanx i did do two more grafts to 2 more pommelos and only used one scion from the original seedling i used the other from the grafted one it had sorta branched in two different ways so will use one side for cuttings or scions and leave the other to grow and maybe fruit someday. will have to figure out which adult citrus i want to graft a piece of the p.t. to. but it has been to hot for that so will hold off till later.o i did graft a piece of variegated pink lemon along with the poncirus on the same pommelo seedling so it will have two varietys on it and one of those being an adult if it takes that is.still trying to get a piece of lime berry to graft to anything seems its just as far away from true citrus as the white sapote is.
Skeet, what do you mean by "air layering". I too have left a few rootstock sprouts to grow mostly PT and one carrizo citrange that came up this year on a Owari Satsuma. It looks like a PT but according to Monrovia it is a carrizo. What benefit would the PT have over the Carrizo? What about the cold hardiness of these two? Would it make much of a difference to me, here in a (wet) zone 8 climate? I would like to root some of these cuttings, what about using gel rooting systems? Lots of questions... Thanks, Greg
Air Layering is similar to traditional rooting, except in the case of air layering the "cutting" is still attached to the tree, and is only cut from the tree after it has been rooted. See this tutorial by Joe Real for instructions. http://citrus.forumup.org/viewtopic.php?t=127&highlight=air+layering&mforum=citrus The main differences between Carrizo and PT are: Tree size, PT small tree Carrizo produces a large tree. Wet soils, PT is good in wet soils, Carrizo is rated intermediate. High pH soils, both rootstocks react poorly. Clay soils PT performs well, and Carrizo poorly. Freezes both good. Tree yield Carrizo high, PT intermediate. Fruit size, Carrizo large, PT smaller. Of the two PT is more cold hardy, but we are not talking a lot of difference. - Millet
