bencelest

Richard:
I don't know really because I don't pay attention to that anymore. I am guestimating 200 to 400. Like my cherry trees, I did not think it will thrive in here since I did not see any tree being grown so one year I had the courage to try it and presto: I have a lot of cherry fruits.
So the only way to do it is try it.
Want some?
I don't have much thou since it's only 2 years old but I have a few grafted on different branch.

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JoeReal

March 24, 2008.

Grafted today:
No more Nordmann Seedless scionwood!
Nordmann Seedless Nagami budded unto Flying Dragon.
Nordmann Seedless Nagami budded unto Chironja Grapefruit.
Nordmann Seedless Nagami bark grafted unto Harvey's rootstock.

Peruvian Lime bark grafted unto Eureka Lemon.
Giant Key Lime bark grafted unto Bearss Lime.
Giant Key Lime bark grafted unto Sour Orange.

Richard

Benny, next February before it starts budding out I would like to obtain a stick. I'm a root-ing toot-ing sort of guy.



Thanks!

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Richard

Yummmmmmmmmmmm! Nordmann Seedless is the Fortunella to have!

Peruvian Lime unto Eureka Lemon seems like an excellent choice for hardiness and production.

Giant Key Lime is a little blah for me, I'm hoping on Sour Orange it might obtain some more flavor.

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JoeReal

Thanks for the comments! At least I won't regret it that much if I can't get the Giant Key Lime going this season.

This is my second try of grafting Giant Key Lime. It is so difficult as my other trials with these end up dying. Narrowed it down to just a few. I would still be grafting the Giant Key Lime unto a sweet orange, but that would be for tomorrow morning.

It was only recently that the Giant Key Lime budwood became available from the UCR CCPP program from their screenhouse plants. The first time it was available, I bought budwoods but all of them failed. The Giant Key Lime from UCR is supposed to be cold hardier than the normal Key Limes, but the same taste. I didn't know the Peruvian lime is hardy.

There are some problems with limes in that they are susceptible to Tristeza and also have wood pocket problems for the grafted trees. I also obtained the Bearss lime selected by Florida and released to California UCR CCPP program, and is a recently released lime without the wood pocket problem. Wood pocket can shorten the life of grafted trees.

I have no idea about Peruvian lime. A good friend of mine in the Bay Area sent me a tiny stick. I hope it will take.

Yes, the Nordmann. I already have it growing on my Calamondin, but I wanted more branches, and so ordered more budwoods and then grafted the extra to Harvey's rootstock. So I ran out of that budwood.

I will be working on my lemon tree this weekend, adding more lemons from UCR CCPP. Perhaps I have about 5 more types of lemons to add. I would also be adding Yuzu and Sudachi on top of the tree. I love the zest of Yuzu and Sudachi, they're excellent aromas for the citrus wines that I make.

Next season, I will be assembling a lime tree but hope to be on Flying Dragon Rootstock. I would be grafting Sour Orange unto FD, then the limes unto the SO. I plan to assemble Kaffir, Florida Bearss, Key, Giant Key, Peruvian, Mary Ellen, Palestinian Sweet, Ginger, and on the top canopy Eustis Limequat and Tavares Limequat.

But as usual, my tree designs are subject to changes depending on budwood availability.

Richard

The Peruvian Lime is not hardy nor weak, but I was commenting on the choice of the robust Eureka as a host. This sounds like a good match and I hope it works for you.

Wood pocket is a nasty bugger and I'm happy to learn about a Bearss cultivar that is not susceptible.

I was perplexed about which lime to grow at home until Toots introduced me to the Taveres Limequat. I haven't acquired one yet -- hopefully I will finish the reserved planter for it this summer.

I forgot about your love of wine-making from fruits. Given the lemons you have named, I think a Libyan Blood Orange wine would match your tastes!

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JoeReal

I will never be able to make my own blood orange wine. I have a large tree filled with all the publicly available blood orange cultivars from UCR. The fruits are so good that they don't get to the fruit bowl. If ever they make it there, they won't last a day. I just got me the newest addition, the Delfino.

But I also discovered that one branch of my Salustiana sweet orange had developed the splotches of blood pigmentation within the flesh. This has not been observed before. Other references states that the Salustiana has deeper orange flesh, but mine used to be like that and this year it changed into a blood orange pigmentation pattern. I grafted this unto a Moro blood orange and may have been "contaminated" or mutated in the process, after all, we have more extreme temperature fluctuations here in the North than in the South, something that enhances blood pigmentation in citruses.

Richard

Joe, I initially didn't notice it in the photo of the half-slices, but the specks are more evident in the photo of thin slices. Then taking a second look at the half slices -- wow, there is a lot of it.

I remember reading that there are two different biological processes that lead to this coloration in citrus: one that is present in the seeds and ovum, and another which at least phenotypically only occurs in the fruit. Any idea which you have?

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JoeReal

I'm scratching my head on that one. I was extremely surprised myself. The only difference this time is that I was testing it for keeping quality on the tree. Although the Salustiana were ready last December, I left a lot of them on the tree to keep track of their quality through time, and then on Valentine's day, when I opened the slice on a particular branch, I found that coloration. All of the fruits on that branch are like that, but not on other, and traced that the particular salustiana branch was grafted unto Moro. The taste kept better and I think it has at least a medium keeping quality on the tree if not very good. But I ran out of fruits before my taste was over due to all this excitement and sampling with other friends.

I will test that branch later and graft it to something else and see if it carries over, then perhaps I will have a better idea. If this is a stable sport, I might call it Vallentine Salustiana, non-patent of course to be shared with others. Only time will tell if this just a fluke or a stable sport. Could be just be scion and stock interaction with Moro Blood orange and may be non-transferrable.

JoeReal

March 25, 2008:
Grafted this morning.
Giant Key lime unto Trovita orange.
Ruby persimmon unto D. lotus
Mercatel persimmon unto D. lotus
Cibaca persimmon unto D. lotus

Richard

Not to be confused with the Valentine "grapefruit", which is (Dancy mandarin x Ruby blood orange) x Siamese Sweet pumelo.

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JoeReal

It is often confused as a grapefruit, can't blame you, but technically it is a pummelo, based on other friends at UCR. Sure I know that pummelo very well. It is not publicly available yet. But willing to give an arm and leg if I can obtain budwoods of Valentine.

Richard

True, the use of quotes around "grapefruit" are intended to alert people that it is grapefruit-like -- at least the produce distributors feel it would have more appeal this way.

I'll see what I can do.

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JoeReal

Would be extremely grateful if you can make it possible....
Would be willing to trade all pups from my banana collection.

JoeReal

Citrus Grafting Tip.

Effect of temperature.

For most citruses:

Best maximum day time temperature for callousing is 75 deg F to 85 deg F. The quicker your grafts callouses, the better are your chances of take. If you have consistent day time temperature within this range, it will have the best success rate. 70 deg F would be the lower limit and 90 deg F would be the higher limit of good callousing that result in most successful grafting or budding. These temperatures are the best, and they should not kill your grafts. If your grafts die at these temperature range, it could be another issue unrelated to temperature.

When it gets over 90 deg F, shield with aluminum foil.

bencelest

Nice conversation going with you two but let me intervene before I forget. I grafted 4 scions of Joe's calamondin to a matured Eureka lemon tree. I was encouraged by the fact that I saw a Joe's calamondin took and is about 4 inches long as a trial basis perhaps 8 months ago. Oh, I have grafted dream orange, fokumuko orange, chandler pommelo there at Eureka lemon as host plant and they are big and going strong but no fruits yet. But being a novice a couple of years ago, I did not know where to graft. I used to graft wherever is easy and what is easy is inside the canopy and about 5 feet in height. I graft to wherever a small sport comes out from the main trunk. So there were no sunshine and usually other branches would take over the space. But many times my graft take and but are struggling to get some sunshine.
Now I know better.
More 2 Asian apples scion to Fuji the leftover from yesterday.

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JoeReal

Benny, that is correct. A piece of the sunshine should fall on your graft at least part of the day. That is why sometimes, it takes me more than a day to decide where to graft but just a minute to do the grafting once it is decided. The more cultivars you have on a tree, the harder it will be to find a suitable place to graft them.

JoeReal

March 25, 2008 6:05 PM
grafted this evening:

Sour Orange T-budded unto Meyer
Sour Orange side veneer grafted unto Eureka
Sour Orange bark grafted unto Rio Star Grapefruit

Ruby Persimmon unto Izu
Mikatani Gosho persimmon unto Izu
Ukraina persimmon unto Izu

Richard

Mmmmm ... yum.

Have you tasted the Matsumoto Wase persimmon?

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JoeReal

Yes. A little bit bland than a True Fuyu. The major advantage of M. Wase is that it is a month earlier than the regular Fuyu. It is completely seedless even if it is surrounded by many male persimmon flowers from other cultivars.

I have harvested mine starting second week of August for the past three years. Fruits get better and darker orange if left longer on the tree. The birds and roof rats love persimmons more than other fruits, so I harvest them as soon as they're ready.

I have more than 60 different kinds of persimmons. I've tasted about 30 kinds of persimmon fruits. But will have to do formal tasting one of these days. One persimmon tree has now 50 cultivars on it.