Multi-Grafted Fruit Tree

[adammac]

Hi,

I was interested in getting a blood orange(or normal orange)/tahithian lime grafted fruit tree to grow in a large pot in sydney. Does anybody know where i could get one//have any advice on if it would work or not? Any feed back would be appreciated, thanks!

[nicky g]

Try this...

www.fruitsaladtrees.com

They are in a town called Emmaville, that is not that far from me in Glen Innes. They've been on Burkes Backyard etc etc and I think I usually see their add in Gardening Australia.

They have many different varieties and will graft any fruit tree together that you ask for. I got one for my father many years ago that had peach, plum, apricot and nectarine on it and it's grown fantastically

[littlegarden]

Nicky I'm so glad to hear that! We seem to get someone asking about multi-graft citrus at least once a month across the two garden forums I visit, but haven't had too many people reply to say they have one. I ordered a tree from that company months ago so I'm so glad to hear that you've had success with them!

My only caution is that depending on what you order it can take a looooooong time - after all they can't send you a tree until they know the graft has taken. It will be around three months now since I ordered mine, I had to call them after 6 weeks and ask what was going on. But just yesterday I got a phone call confirming mine was on its way!

I ordered a tangelo/lime though which is more obscure than an orange/lime. They ended up asking if I was ok with a tangelo/lime/mandarin and I didn't mind paying for the extra graft.

[adammac]

Yeah that was the other thing i was going to ask is if people have had much experience with multi grafts, how are they.

My mum got me for christmas a 3 grafted apple tree, red fuji, pink lady and something else and i was wondering if they are any good.

If it was worth getting a multi grafted citrus or if they are no good.

[oproudfoot]

Hi adammac, if you just want to drive somewhere and buy a tree, you could try one of these 'splitzer' ones:

http://www.citrussplitzer.com.au/index.html

I have a lemon meyer/ Tahitian lime tree of theirs growing well in a large pot. Pretty exy, at $90 for an approximately 2 foot tree. Very established/ even grafts though. They have a list of the 30 or so places they're available from in NSW, with phone numbers, under the 'splitzer stockists' section of their website. Unfortunately while they offer just about every other combination, I don't think they do lime/ orange

Cheers, Owen

[nicky g]

Well my fathers one seems to be growing quite well. He wasn't as vigilant as he should of been with making sure that each variety is growing at the same stage and let the peach grow too much compared to the others, but short of that, he's very happy with it.

I suppose if you just asked for a couple of commonly eaten fruits grafted together, they may have it in stock already and would be faster getting it out to you, but if you wanted something unsual, it would take longer as they need to ensure each graft takes well.

And yes I agree that it is a very costly exercise. But yummy

[littlegarden]

I'll let you know how mine goes when it arrives next week!

[littlegarden]

Since we do tend to get a number of people asking about multi-graft citrus, I thought I'd put an update on how my own little mandarin/tangelo multi-graft is going. When it arrived around Christmas 2008 it looked like this:



And now only six months later it's looking like this:



Cons: one of the three grafts broke in the mail and though I was compensated it means no limes for me unless I can figure out how to graft myself. It's also put out two sprouts from the root stock but they are easy to identify and pluck off.

Pros: Two full flushes of new growth within 6 months, they're definitely healthy grafts! Also the growth on the two grafts is so far very even so I'm not worried about one graft "taking over". I'm excited to see if it puts out flowers in the spring or just more leaves ... and then I have to decide if I think it's strong enough to make its first fruit or if I should pick off the flowers and let it grow another year first.

[guzzigirl]

it is certainly looking very healthy. About 12 mths is recommended before allowing fruit to set. Makes for a stronger healthier plant in the long run. But you can enjoy any blossoms in the meanwhile, just nip off any fruit that forms.

[pineapplehound]

Yup, remove the fruit.

I remember talking to the late Rob Engall about this years ago and his advice was to remove the small green fruit after it flowers for the first couple of years so the plant's energy goes into establishing the tree instead of growing fruit. For display purposes he had some trees in pots that were 35 years old.

In my experience the fruit from very young trees is on the sour side anyway.

What kind of mandarin do you have on your tree littlegarden? You never said.

[littlegarden]

It's a page mandarin, that's the only kind the company offered.

Yeah I know I should be patient, I'll make myself wait at least a year. I had a lotsa lemons for two years, maybe three, before it died and I always plucked off the flowers even when it made heaps. But I did a lot of things wrong with that little tree, pruned it a lot for no good reason and then let it get pot-bound. I'm determined not to repeat my mistakes!

[pineapplehound]

Page is a cross between the Minneola tangelo and Clementine mandarin. For multigrafts to give a good result the varieties should grow with similar vigour. Looks like that was one of the reasons for combining Page and tangelo (probably Minneola).

I wish someone would put out a combination of early, mid, and late season varities of the same basic kind of fruit on the one tree for an extended harvest period. For instance, a multigraft that combines Washington Navel, Lanes Late Navel, and a Blood orange all on the one tree.

[littlegarden]

Page is a cross between the Minneola tangelo and Clementine mandarin. For multigrafts to give a good result the varieties should grow with similar vigour. Looks like that was one of the reasons for combining Page and tangelo (probably Minneola).

I wish someone would put out a combination of early, mid, and late season varities of the same basic kind of fruit on the one tree for an extended harvest period. For instance, a multigraft that combines Washington Navel, Lanes Late Navel, and a Blood orange all on the one tree.

Check the Fruitsaladtree company then, because they do offer two types of oranges, one winter one summer, as well as lemon, lime, tangelo, pomelo and mandarin (I think that's all the citrus). I do wish they had blood orange though, they're so yummy.

Thanks for telling me about Page, I actually just wanted lime and tangelo but the way the company works is they graft everything and whatever survives, they sell. So I agreed to buy the mandarin/lime/tangelo but the lime graft broke in the mail. But I adore tangelos (I do believe they're Minneola) so I'm glad to hear Page has some tangelo in it's background, I love the tangy flavour.

As to balancing the grafts, I'd be much more worried about their stone fruit multigrafts because I think that's where you can get some very uneven growth. These two grafts, at least, seem to be very well balanced.

[tannas]

I brought a 2 grafted jap plum. I was told that purchasing a grafted tree which still had grafting tape on it wasnt acceptable, but if i took it off the graft would have fallen off! (that was my teachers opinion by the way not mine!)
I planted it... growing fine but a dog kept running through it and even tho it was right ona fence coz i was fan training it..... stupid dog broke off one of the grafts... so now i have a single left branched tree...... i have brought a pollinator from Diggers club and wil plant in same hole in a month of two.. (duo planting) or will graft, depending if i wanna risk the new plum tree i just brought!

Fruit salad trees are very expensive, 25 per graft, plus postage, and no discount if bare rooted. Local nursery here had a two grafted plum tree for half the price that the one i brought off Fruit salad tree, and i had to wait along time to receive my tree, but didn't matter in end coz of the bloody dog.. grrr anyway check out your local nursery... they may have a few surprise's!

[littlegarden]

Agreed that the fruit salad tree company is quite expensive and I don't know about your plum but mine was a tiny tiny twig. If you just want something simple I'd look elsewhere - for example I'm seeing more and more 2-graft citrus in garden shops, like orange/mandarin, lemon/lime, kaffir lime/tahitian lime, and much more advanced in size than fruit salad tree. The only advantage of fruit salad tree is being able to get something unusual that you can't find elsewhere. And personally I wouldn't put more than 3 grafts on their trees, they're very small or at least the citrus is.

I'm so sorry to hear that your graft broke off, how frustrating! Oh and mine had grafting tape all over it when it arrived too, I didn't know what to do with it so I peeled off a little and the rest has just kind of fallen off.

Have you considered sourcing a branch of a plum and trying to graft it on yourself? I'm pretty sure the stone fruits are easy to graft. Citrus sounds complicated though so I don't know if I'd bother trying it but I've considered it ... finding a tiny branch of lime and putting it on myself ...

p.s. if anyone knows a good website about grafting citrus, especially with pictures, I'd appreciate it!

[pineapplehound]

Strictly speaking Citrus are "budded" not "grafted". Grafting utilizes a small piece of twig. Budding just uses the bud of a twig that hasn't grown yet. Budding is so successful that grafting is rarely used in Citrus propagation.

About 15 years ago I budded a Poorman onto a grapefruit root. It worked on my second ever attempt, 2 of the 4 buds survived. The first attempt was a long shot, I tried to place the bud where the wood of the rootstock was too old, I knew it was chancy and the buds dried out and died. The tree is growing quite well now.

I Googled "budded Citrus" and came up with some excellent links on the very first page.

I hope Wamuran hasn't removed his "wild oranges" yet. The seeds of those Citranges make excellent rootstocks for most types of Citrus.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=14746

[littlegarden]

Aaaah thanks for that. No wonder I was having trouble googling "citrus grafting" and I couldn't really understand the descriptions...I was still mentally picturing twig-graft-style grafting, not budding.

Hey now that I've read a bit ... the broken lime graft still has living tissue growing against the root stock. I might try "notching" above the tissue - do you think there's a chance it would re-shoot from the lime? I wish the lady at the fruit salad tree company had suggested that over the phone when I first reported it broken!

[pineapplehound]

I might try "notching" above the tissue - do you think there's a chance it would re-shoot from the lime?

I don't think it would hurt to try but I doubt it would work. The idea behind notching is to promote the growth of an existing bud, not bud formation of undifferentiated tissue. Since you are down in Melbourne and your tree has a flying dragon rootstock it would probably be wise to wait until late July or early August to make the cut.

I found a fairly recent book on Citrus in the local library geared to the Australian Citrus grower. I only thumbed through it so far but it looks really good.

Allen Gilbert, Citrus, A Guide to Organic Management, Propagation, Pruning, Pest Control and Harvesting (2007).

[tannas]

Very excited... Traralgon West Nursery have multi grafted stuff! santa rosa and satsuma, and moorpak &Trevitt (typos i know ) Apricots.. im excited.... only $27.95. why the hell did i waste my moeny on fruit salad tree, i should put a photo up its looks stupid, and why did i buy a twig from Diggers, a Santa Rosa for $24.95. How can you get so excited with fruits trees... :D:D
I am gonna have to find space for all this, as well as a spot for 15 grapes i have, which i got last year from School...:D

[Tirrawarra]

Hi,

I was interested in getting a blood orange(or normal orange)/tahithian lime grafted fruit tree to grow in a large pot in sydney. Does anybody know where i could get one//have any advice on if it would work or not? Any feed back would be appreciated, thanks!

Vasilis - taught me how to do it myself. He was at one of Bunnings in Adelaide a few weeks back - and the link below lists where he'll be in the future.

http://www.vasilisgarden.com/index.php/news

cheers Steve