Citrus Grafting

I know several people here grow their own citrus. I've got a lime tree, but one tree can produce WAY too many limes. I'd like some lemons too but don't need a whole tree's worth. I want to graft lemons onto my lime tree and make a lemon-lime tree.

Anyone have any experience grafting citrus? I tried doing a splice graft today but it doesn't look very promising.

Is bud grafting or one of the other methods of grafting better for citrus?

Way too many limes can only mean not enough mai tais. What gives? :)

Sorry, no positive experience grafting over here.

Don't know for sure, but I think the citrus industry uses bud grafting.

Here are a few links :

TreeHelp.com's Bud Grafting

Sunkist's bud grafting. Sunkist's bud graft rootstock cut is upside down from TreeHelp's

Graft Lines and Suckers that can mess up your efforts if unattended.

Budding and Grafting Citrus and Avocados UC Davis report PDF.

Thanks guys.

Jingleheimer - average yield for a mature lime tree is 700 limes per year. I have a job- I can't possible drink that many Mai Tais! :lol:

Gnomon - I think you are right about bud grafting being the citrus industy standard. That was my intention, I asked someone from work to bring me a branch from their lemon tree at home, but the branch they brought didn't have any buds. I will try again soon with some buds. Thanks for the links

On 2011-03-25 13:39, MadDogMike wrote:
Thanks guys.

I will try again soon with some buds. Thanks for the links

Buds....Hmmmm.

Buds....

:lol: Was that a 4/20 reference? :lol:

I am in the process of topworking a lime tree with some more exotic citrus varieties that will be fun to try in mixed drinks. I have grafts of Sweet Limes, Acidless Lemons, and the Marrakech Limonette all growing on my Persian Lime tree.

Here is a video showing how I have done most of them:
Grafting Citrus Trees

I have done bud grafting too, but I find it more useful for making a new tree than for topworking:
Grafting Citrus (step-by-step)

Here is a video of the bud grafting technique:
Grafting Citrus

California has a program that makes it easy and inexpensive to order budwood of exotic citrus varieties for grafting. Here is a video showing how to set up an account and order budwood:
How to Order Citrus Budwood

Enjoy!

Thanks FruitMentor. Great video, well made and informative. I need to give that a try

Fruitmentor - that's fascinating, especially to me since I am already growing several different citrus.

You are welcome. I am glad that you all enjoyed the links!

Another interesting variety that I grafted this year is the Lemonade Lemon (VI 734 on the CCPP order form). I suspect that it may work better grafted to orange rather than lime, though. I bud grafted mine onto a standard orange rootstock.

I think that the Lemonade Lemon would work well for tropical drinks. It has a lemony taste (like lemonade) and enough acidity for a nice flavor, but is mild enough that it can be eaten like an orange. The juice is good straight.

With all of these new fruit varieties, we will all have to go back to our recipe books and start testing all over again from the very beginning.

GOD BLESS YOU! :)

Man, I can't wait for each and every lime and lemon to drop from my trees. Given the struggle I've had until now, I welcome an abundance of fruit. The trees are about 15 gals and have fruit, though a while to go before they're large and ripe enough to drop. In my tree hunting, I saw a lot of varieties of one tree producing different fruits and that to me is just insane, like the mad science of citrus.