Did my T-buds survive?

[bluemoon]

​Hello everyone! This is my first post in the forum and my first attempt at T-budding. Need your advise.

I did my first attempt at T-budding over 3 weeks ago - 2 Meyer's Lemons and a Cara Cara on an existing citrus tree of about 5 - 6 y.o. Now I am not able to to determine whether the buds are still alive.

The lemon buds where green after the first two weeks. The first bud looked swollen. But they both started loosing their green color. They seem to be well attached to their respective branches and have callus tissue around them but I am concerned about the disappearance of the green color.

The Cara Cara bud, on the other hand, is completely covered by the bark of the host branch - the bark closed over it almost completely; if it wasn't for the horizontal cut of the T, it would have been hard even to find the budding spot.

The host tree is approximately 5-6 years old, most likely a sour orange grown from a seed (I inherited it with the new house, so no more info is available). It hasn't produced the flowers yet.

Can anyone tell if those buds are still alive? Should I try to force them by notching? Or should I admit a tactical defeat?

Your help is greatly appreciated.​

(the forum doesn't let me upload the attachments, so I inserted the links to the images of the my buds.  The first 2 links are of my 2 lemon buds, and the last two link - of my Cara Cara bud covered with bark)

www.ourfigs.com/filedata/fetch?id=1529533&d=1718570299

www.ourfigs.com/filedata/fetch?id=1529534&d=1718570369

www.ourfigs.com/filedata/fetch?id=1529535&d=1718570466

www.ourfigs.com/filedata/fetch?id=1529536&d=1718570483

[ilya11]

Hello,

I am not able to see the pictures, they are only for the registred members of outfigs forum

[bluemoon]

Hello Ilya,

Sorry for the mishap.  I wasn't able to upload the images, the message I received was that the forum had exceeded its storage space, maybe you want to take a look at it.

Anyways, since I posted my question, one of the buds had felled out, and now I'm sure the other is going to fell as well, so I guess it's a moot question by now.  Oh, well, I'm still learning.

But let me ask you, I had attempted to do t-budding onto established scaffold branches of an existing 6 year old tree.  Though I had never seen any mentioning that this shouldn't be done, i noticed that in all the videos they are using very young rootstocks.  Could that be an issue of why most of my buds failed?  Also, the two buds that i was asking about, they were green after I first unwrapped it after 2 weeks.  And yet, they dried out as well.  Would you have any idea of what could have gone wrong?

[ilya11]

Hi, the success rate  improuves when grafting is done on the young green wood. 

Also, if you do not have much experience in grafting, it is better to start with grafting small twigs, not the buds.

Otherwise, you can upload the pictures on any hostage service (e.g. Postimage) and upload them here

[bluemoon]

Got it, thanks.  One of the reasons why I tried the budding was that it was the most recommended method for citrus everywhere I looked.  I don't even remember any citrus specific article that would mention other grafting methods.  In retrospect, I understand now that all those articles and videos dealt with propagation of new trees rather than modifying existing ones, and none of the articles clarified it.

Another reason was that is is impossible to obtain citrus scions where I live (abroad, in the Caribbeans).  I had to order the buds from the California Citrus Protection Program (CCPP), and shipping them here, overnight, with all the certificates is dreadfully expensive.  So, grafting one bud at a time should give me more chances than using the entire bud stick at once, so I thought.

As for grafting the scion twigs, CCPP only sends budsticks for budding.  Can those budsticks be used as scion twigs for grafting or does it have to be a different scion material?

[ilya11]

Hello, try fruitmentor.com for the explanations on citrus cleft grafting. You need the twig with two buds and if done on the side the diameter of the rootstock does not play a role
The twig can be protected from dessication either b plastic bag or streched parafilm/buddytape.