hello everyone!, i'm new to this cite but i have already been helped so much bye all of the posts! well i recently have purchased a blood orange, kumquat and satsuma tree... i also have four meyer lemon sprouts from seeds i planted a month ago. the lemon sprouts are all between 1" and 4", the trees are all about 3-4'. they are all fertile and have the ability to produce fruits with the exception of the lemons of course. my question is... could i graft a blood orange and a satsuma so that they will have both fruits on one tree? also when the lemon trees are older will they be self fertile or must i graft them with a mature lemon or citrus tree to get fruit? and could i use a blood orange, satsuma, or kumquat for that? thanks in advance for all the help!
You can graft most any citrus onto any other citrus you wish. A friend of mine has 50 different citrus varieties that he has grafted onto a single tree, therefore that tree produces 50 types of citrus fruit. Your lemon will be self fertile. - Millet
thanks millet!! i wasnt sure because i just couldnt fathom it lol! so even kumquats on an orange tree? that sounds crazy! thanks again for the help!
As Millet said, you can graft many different varieties on the same tree and grafting citrus is easy. One thing you may not know, while many citrus seeds are clones of the parent tree and will produce identical fruit, your Meyer lemon is one of the varieties that is not "true". The seedling you have will not be a Meyer-- they may be similar, but there is a very slim chance you will get a really good fruit, Skeet
thanks skeet, so you're saying the chances of me actually getting quality fruit is slim? how would they not be quality? like size or taste? i didnt know you oculd actually have a bad lemon lol.
To be clear the fruit I am talking about is the fruit from the Meyer seedlings. Meyer lemon is believed to be a cross between a true lemon and a sweet orange. If you grow the seedlings until they fruit without grafting, it will probably take 5 to 8 years to get fruit. The fruit will likely be of lower quality-- less flavor, less juice or low productivity as is the nature of almost all fruit grown from seed--there is that rare chance that the fruit will be the next great variety. Your seedlings may make a good or at least usable rootstock and you can graft mature wood from a Meyer lemon (or any other citrus) and have fruit in 3-4 years. As for bad taste in citrus, I have never tasted it, but the common rootstock --trifoliate or Poncirus-- is said to have a taste you will never want to try again. Skeet
oh, well thanks for the input! i will end up grafting the meyer lemon in a few years thanks for all your help!, beau
One thing with seedlings, you never know what you will get. There are some citrus trees grown from seed that have some exceptional qualities. The problem being it may take years and perhaps decades to receive the fruits of your labour (so to speak) As mentioned in other threads,the Juanita Tangerine has lived through -17c (0f) freeze and a Croxton Grapefruit which has lived through at least a -10c (12f) both these trees were planted from seed (from store bought fruit) and named after their caretakers. Both have produced exceptional crops of quality fruit. I have heard of a non fruiting grapefruit tree growing outside in Montreal. (I would love a cutting...) Like people, the seeds have their unique qualities (or lack of). Consider it a long term science project. Growing citrus for most of us is for fun and personal enjoyment. :) Greg
thanks greg! ive read almost everywhere about how it can take up to 15 years before store bought seeds begin to produce fruit. so, i got along itme ahead of me (: -beau
We can whip or tongue graft (branch grafts) most any Citrus onto a parent plant that may not be a rootstock plant. Such as a Meyer Lemon on its own roots and then whip graft Ponderosa, Lisbon or Eureka onto the branches of a Meyer Lemon. This has been done. We try not to mix and match different forms of Citrus too often such as develop a Cocktail tree with a Washington Navel, a Moro Blood Orange and have a Mexican Lime all on the same tree. I can pretty well guarantee the Mexican Lime will not have a chance to develop over time like the two Oranges will. If we want a variety of Citrus to be on one tree we try to keep like forms together such as having four forms of Blood Orange chip budded onto a parent plant or have four forms of Sweet Oranges or have four or more forms of Clementine Mandarins patch budded onto a parent plant but we do not side graft a Eureka Lemon, a Key Lime, a Ruby Red Grapefruit and a seedless Valencia Orange all on a Flying Dragon rootstock as then we are almost certain to lose one of more of the scions in time as some forms will be more vigorous from the others and when this happens other than light issues, less nutrients and sap flow will be directed to the underachieving scions and we risk losing them due to tissue breakdown or upon a weakening they can become targets for insect invasion such as scale (yes, indeed, one scion can get hit by let's say Yellow scale and the whole rest of the tree will not) and from disease pathogens. A 50 n 1 tree has several branch or stem grafts that are closely monitored and unruly vigorous growth pinched back, otherwise one graft will eventually "take over" another one. The novelty of it is much more appealing than the hands on upkeep will be for most people. Still, if space constraints are an issue then the whole process becomes feasible and enlightening but in areas that are not subject to a killing freeze however. One good freeze and we can lose a lot of our time and effort and end up with a 1 n 1 tree, if that, in some locations. I'd go with a semi-dwarf tree as my understock just to hedge my bet a little against a possible or likely, devastating freeze for outdoor container or in ground Citrus if we want to have multiple Citrus on one tree. Jim
Blood Oranges and Satsumas have been cleft grafted onto Lemon rootstock in the past. If we want to experiment and have multiple forms on one tree it is probably better to raise our own rootstock parent just for this purpose. A home grown rootstock grown outdoors either in ground or grown in a container, in many cases will have a better chance to adapt to our climatic and growing conditions better than a form that came into us from another area and was allowed to grow on before we t-budded it. Vigor in the rootstock is a must if we want our multiple form plants to grow well. It is because of the vigor or lack thereof and the time to produce a viable root system that I'd be hesitant to use a dwarf form rootstock but would prefer a seedling or rooted cutting from a more traditional semi-dwarf or even a standard form. What you have to do if you want to grow a Blood Orange and a Satsuma on a seedling Lemon is determine what form of Blood Orange you have and is it a dwarf or semi-dwarf form of it. Most Satsumas are a semi-dwarf to start with. Even a seedless Kishu standard will grow to about the size of a semi-dwarf Owari Satsuma in locations around here. Many of the Satsumas do have some natural dwarfing characteristics to them, same is true to a large extent with the Kumquats but not all Kumquats as some plants on their own roots can be rather large in time, certainly taller but not necessarily wider than our 50+ year old Meyer Lemon that is on its own roots. You can work a Cocktail tree with what you have if your Blood Orange has dwarfing characteristics in the plant as the Satsuma and the Kumquat should be able to co-exist together side grafted or chip budded onto a rootstock standard. If you want to try some whip grafts later then read up on JoeReal's superb propagation tutorials in the Citrus Growers Forum. He has taken applied branch grafts beyond what most people would even contemplate, although others in years past have done it but not to that extent! A lot of his success is due to the tree he uses as his mother plant, the rootstock parent. It is not the 50 varieties that I would have interest in because he will get a different "read" from those grafts and how they grow than I will get from growing the variety as a solitary plant in the ground. I'd want a cutting from the rootstock instead and grow it on and then take seed from the fruit and grow them on and let those seedlings be one of my rootstocks for future propagating. Jim
