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Have very old Grapefruit tree and want to start successor with same
Hi Michael,
I'll try and answer some of your questions, although most of my experience is with apples and stone fruits. m v wrote: Hi, I have a very old grapefruit tree with great tasting fruit. Really the best grapefruit I have ever had. It is white, large, and very sweet. I don't know the specific cultivar or rootstock. It is in S. Florida. How can I find out? Trees are best identified by their leaves and fruit. Try taking samples of these to your nearest horticultural experts. The tree is 30-35 years old and looks like it is declining. There is some bark damage around the trunk. It is about 25.' tall How can I start a new tree with the same traits? Grafting is the only sure way to preserve the character of the original tree. I have done a little research and see that seedlings can work (true to type) but take a long time to fruit and may be not be hardy without grafting them to rootstock. Seedlings carry the characteristics of the previous generation, and may not produce the same fruit you are expecting. If that seedling came from a blossom that was pollinated from another tree, the probability of a mismatch goes up. I also see that budding the original tree onto rootstock will produce fruit much sooner (the bud remembers it's age). Will this produce a tree that is allready old and may not live long? How long would an old bud placed on a young root be expected to live? The bud does not carry an 'age' gene with it. The important thing is that the bud is healthy and fresh enough to bind to the tree it is being attached to. Once the bud takes hold and grows, it should be just as good as one coming from a younger tree. Any other methods I should consider? A bud graft is where you attach the bud to an existing branch of a tree. Other grafts would involve attaching a piece of scion (a branch of your older tree) to a root stock. If you don't have another grapefruit tree to attach the buds, you will have to get some grapefruit rootstock graft some scion onto it. Sherwin D. Thanks in advance for any help, Michael |
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