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Grafting Fruit Trees – Z Grafting Citrus

September 17, 2016 By Dan Willey Leave a Comment

This step-by-step guide to grafting fruit trees shows how to graft a tree using the Z-grafting technique, a technique that I have found especially useful for grafting citrus trees.

Grafting fruit trees with the Z-graft — This step-by-step guide shows how to graft fruit trees such as citrus trees with the Z-graft.

Z-grafting is a scion grafting technique that is useful for grafting trees in situations where the scion and rootstock have different diameters. I have used it in for grafting citrus when the scion diameter is greater than that of the rootstock. The Z-graft is useful both for grafting new trees and also to add new varieties to established trees.

Grafting Orange Trees – How to Graft a Tree by T-budding

August 23, 2016 By Dan Willey Leave a Comment

In this step-by-step guide to grafting orange trees, learn how to graft a tree by T-budding, a method of grafting trees that is very easy and that gives a good success rate. T-budding is a very common grafting technique and is useful both for grafting citrus trees and also for grafting fruit trees of many other species.

how to graft an orange tree overview — This step-by-step guide shows how to graft an orange tree with the T-bud.

T-budding can be used for grafting citrus in parts of the year when the rootstock is actively growing. If the rootstock is not actively growing, the chip bud is a good alternative. Bud grafts such as the T-bud and the chip bud are useful to conserve budwood since they only use one bud per graft. If there is more budwood available, scion grafting techniques such as the cleft graft and the bark graft also work well for grafting new citrus trees.

Grafting Lemon Trees – Successfully Grafting Fruit Trees with the T-Bud

August 20, 2016 By Dan Willey Leave a Comment

This step-by-step guide to grafting lemon trees shows how to graft a tree using T-budding, a grafting technique that is easy and that gives a high success rate. In T-budding a single bud from a desired variety is grafted onto a rootstock. The T-bud is one of the most common methods used by nurseries to graft fruit trees. In addition to its use in grafting citrus trees, T-budding is also used for grafting fruit trees of many kinds.

grafting lemon trees with the T-bud — This step-by-step guide shows how to graft lemon trees using the T-bud.

In order for the T-bud to work, it must be performed during a time of the year when the tree is actively growing and thus the bark is slipping and can be peeled back easily. In my California climate, the T-bud can be used for grafting citrus in summer and in late spring. In times of the year when the bark is not slipping, the chip bud can be used instead. T-budding is commonly used to propagate new trees. Some people use the T-bud to topwork trees or to make multi-fruit trees, but for these grafts I prefer the patch bud, the cleft graft, or the bark graft.

Grafting Citrus Cocktail Trees with the Patch Bud

May 29, 2016 By Dan Willey 1 Comment

This step-by-step grafting guide shows a method of grafting citrus trees that is both very easy and that also gives a high success rate. Patch budding of citrus trees is a popular method for topworking citrus trees to new varieties in Spain. In the past year I performed many patch bud citrus grafts and found that it also works very well as a technique for adding new varieties to an existing citrus tree to make a multi-grafted citrus cocktail tree.

This step-by-step tutorial shows how to graft citrus trees using patch budding.

An advantage of grafting citrus with the patch bud compared to T-budding and chip budding is that the larger surface area of the graft makes it less likely to be absorbed by a fast-growing target branch before the buds sprout. A disadvantage of grafting citrus with the patch bud compared to scion grafting techniques such as the cleft graft and the bark graft is that the buds can be slow to start growing. Although the particular graft demonstrated in this tutorial is of a Mato Buntan pummelo, I also found that patch budding works well for oranges, lemons, and limes; I expect that it would work well for any type of citrus.