I would like to clone my lemon and lime tree.Help
 

I need to know how to take and root cuttings from them. I have tryed once
with three cuttings from each and failed. I have heard it can be done? I
have had no luck yet. Thanks Rich

You need to take a cutting that is just about the right size and the right
degree of ripeness (just barely ripened wood, not quite green anymore,
usually works well). Cut it at a branch, and maybe use some rooting
hormones. I haven't used the gel kind but supposedly they work well with
things that are hard to root. Then you trim off most of the leaves, plant
the cutting, and keep it sufficiently warm, humid, and bright but protected
from direct sun.

IF your plants are not seedless, there is another possible way, tricky, but
intriguing: Citrus frequently produce parthenocarpic fruits complete with
fertile seed that grow into replicas of the parent. No guarantees, but this
phenomenon has been known to frustrate people who wanted genetically
distinct offspring.

Atar

clucas wrote:

I need to know how to take and root cuttings from them. I have tryed once
with three cuttings from each and failed. I have heard it can be done? I
have had no luck yet. Thanks Rich

--
Enjoy reading about special plants from interesting parts of the world on my
blog at wildestdreamsofkew.blogspot.com

Citrus frequently produce parthenocarpic fruits complete with
fertile seed that grow into replicas of the parent

Parthenocarpic fruit is set without a fertilized ovary, which leads to a
seedless fruit, like bananas. Not trying to be a jerk like *certain* people,
just a public service announcement.

Toad

clucas wrote:

I need to know how to take and root cuttings from them. I have tryed once
with three cuttings from each and failed. I have heard it can be done? I
have had no luck yet. Thanks Rich

If you tie gauze bags around the flower buds and carefully remove
the anthers as soon as the flowers start to open, you might be able
to obtain apomictic seeds from the fruit (seeds produced without
pollination). Citrus very often yield fertile apomictic seeds.
These would indeed produce plants the same as their parents.

The usual way to propagate citrus is to create a rootstock from a
seedling (which often is unlike its parents if the flowers were
pollinated) and then graft or bud the desired variety onto the
rootstock.

With a somewhat incompatible rootstock, you can create dwarf trees
from varieties that are normally not dwarfed. That is how my
'Eureka' lemon, 'Robertson' navel orange, and kumquat are all
dwarfed. I have had the lemon more than 35 years, and it's about 3
feet from soil to top. Yet it bears full-sized lemons; one year I
got over 60 lemons from it.

However, all three of my citrus were bought from a nursery. While
I'm generally successful with rooting perennial cuttings, I have
very poor luck with woody plants. I have never been successful
with either budding or grafting.

--

David E. Ross
http://www.rossde.com/

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