That is great you got to go to a class. I really want to give it a go. I have the rootstock growing and the scion in the fridge. LOL First mistake, I thought I could remember which was which so now if the graft works, I will have to wait for it to fruit to find out what it is.

Patty:
It is such a rush to do your first graft, esepcially when it starts growing!
Not to be a wet towel, but citrus is not what I would choose after pluots. Hopefully you can get a direct tutorial from an experienced citrus grafter, because I have NEVER had any of my citrus take, and I am now 100% on apples and pears, and about 90% on plums/pluots. My understanding is it helps if you cut the branch to be grafted, and then wait several weeks for it to recover and try to grow again before you graft onto it. But I have not tried this yet. But just straight grafting, mine all turn black and die.

Carla in Sac

I'll make sure I graft citrus with one of our experienced CRFG folks. Or, I can go over to Clausen's Nursery and have one of their grafters help me out. I think T bud grafting is supposed to be more successful with citrus? Thanks for the tip! I'll add it to my grafting notes. Hoping I can find a good grafting resource book, too.

Patty S.

Good Citrus grafting tutorials stickied here:

http://citrus.forumup.org/viewforum.php?f=3&mforum=citrus&sid=ea5d6b87b4f64a054a07425723eb390f

Here is a link that might be useful: Citrus Propagation

Well, one week after grafting my Dapple Dandy scionwood to St. Julian A rootstock, I took a peek under the paper bag. The buds on the scionwood are starting to swell and I see peeks of green. I hope this means my grafts are taking :-) Kind of excited about this. My husband has resorted to calling me the "mad scientist". My Ronde fig cuttings are also starting to show a bit of bud swell, too. Pretty excited.

Patty S.

Great work. I've been able to top work some ohf333 stock by digging it up early, potting it, cut of previous scion, grafted max red bartlett onto it and now, 3 week later have 5" growth from 3 of them. One has emerged 1/2" but is struggling.
After viewing youtube's many videos on the subject, I felt confident doing the procedure and they're taking! I encourage folks to attempt grafting and budding as it can be pretty simple.

Well, update on my two Dapple Dandy pluot grafts on St. Julian A. Took another peek under the bag, and both my grafts are pushing little green buds through the Parafilm!! I'm so excited. They are growing at the same rate, so it looks like they both have taken. I'm very excited :-) I can't want to try something else. I'm pretty much out of room, so it will be top working for the most part. Here are the grafted trees:
{{gwi:73938}}

{{gwi:73939}}

I'm so excited. It looks like both will take. Wowie for me, lol!

Patty S.

:-)

eom Mark

Patty-

Did they supply the cuttings and the rootstock? That seems like a very interesting class. I am running out of room as well and I know of TONS of different varieties of fruit in my neighborhood that I could use. Im in Orange County in Little Saigon and there are so many different fruit trees just hanging over fences. People just let their trees grow wild around here..hehe

I found a 5 in one Citrus tree at HD yesterday. I could not believe the size of it with 2 different types of oranges, 1 lemon, 1 lime and 1 tangerine. It was awesome! I too want to graft my citrus! Good luck!!

Our CRFG chapter bought the rootstock, and charged each member $5.00 to cover the cost of the rootstock and soil (all were planted up in 1 gal containers). Then, various members brought in scionwood, so we had a nice choice of apple, pear and stone fruit scionwood and roostocks. So, we each had a one on one teaching session. It was just a great, great class. We have a very nice CRFG chapter here in N. San Diego county, thanks to all the dedicated officers and volunteers.

Patty S.

"Took another peek under the bag, and both my grafts are pushing little green buds through the Parafilm!! I'm so excited."

It is thrilling to see it work. Of course there's plenty of science behind it, but it almost seems like magic to take a stick (or dormant bud) fasten it on a tree, and viola a new tree grows from it. It is amazing.

If you think about it, it almost has the flavor of a children's fantasy story - Jack's magical plum tree was almost dead, but he took a stick from it, whittled the end and stuck it on another tree. And it came to life and grew, becoming his same old friend.

I know, olpea. That's kind of how I feel :-) I know so many folks on this list are very experienced grafters, and this is probably second nature to them. But to have my first two graft attempts take is pretty exciting. I'm sure I would not have had this kind of success without such great instruction for sure, so the credit really goes to the CRFG members who gave their time and expertise for free to the rest of us less experienced members. I know, and it is magical! I was an OB nurse for many years, and that magic experience of a new baby never faded for me. Maybe that's why I like gardening so much!

Patty S.

Story goes that when Fr. Ravalli first turned the soil in Stevensville, MT in the 1840's Natives would sit in anticipation, watching the lines in which the seeds were planted for those first signs of new growth.

I'm still the same way, and grafting is even better! It's like Christmas, but the gift keeps on giving so you never have to sit there in your jammies and say "Is that all?"

Merry Christmas!

:-)M

Thats funny. I was thinking the same thing today that everyday is like Christmas when I wake up to go outside to peek at my trees. Sometimes I even have trouble falling asleep at night!

Christmas everyday except for when the bugs steal the presents..hehe

Hoosierquilt,

Great job. And you probably know more than me about grafting, but FYI you could have cut your scion into pieces with 2 buds each and grafted many more branches if you wished.

Yup, ramble, we did get that info in class, but for our first attempts, the teachers told us having a little more to hold on to would make it easier to get a good graft first time around. Once you're proficient at cleft grafting, you can use a much smaller piece of scionwood, and then be able to graft either more trees or more branches.

Patty S.

Hi Patty, congratulations on your success with Dapple Dandy pluot.

With warm regards from Spain
Jose Joaquin