Have very old Grapefruit tree and want to start successor with same taste

Question

Hi,I have a very old grapefruit tree with great tasting fruit. Really thebest 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?The tree is 30-35 years old and looks like it is declining. There issome bark damage around the trunk.  It is about 25.' tall How can Istart a new tree with the same traits?I have done a little research and see that seedlings can work (true totype) but take a long time to fruit and may be not be hardy withoutgrafting them to rootstock.I also see that budding the original tree onto rootstock will producefruit much sooner (the bud remembers it's age).  Will this produce atree that is allready old and may not live long?  How long would anold bud placed on a young root be expected to live?Any other methods I should consider?Thanks in advance for any help,Michael

Sherwin Dubren · Accepted Answer

Hi Michael,  I'll try and answer some of your questions, although most of myexperienceis with apples and stone fruits.m v wrote:  Trees are best identified by their leaves and fruit.  Try takingsamples  of these to your nearest horticultural experts.  Grafting is the only sure way to preserve the character of theoriginal tree.  Seedlings carry the characteristics of the previous generation, andmay  not produce the same fruit you are expecting.  If that seedling camefrom  a blossom that was pollinated from another tree, the probability of amismatch  goes up.  The bud does not carry an 'age' gene with it.  The important thing isthat  the bud is healthy and fresh enough to bind to the tree it is beingattached to.  Once the bud takes hold and grows, it should be just as good as onecoming from  a younger tree.  A bud graft is where you attach the bud to an existing branch of atree.  Other grafts  would involve attaching a piece of scion (a branch of your older tree)to a root stock.  If you...

Maren Purves · Answer

Citrus are about as bad about cross pollination as apples are. It is very unlikely that you will get the same fruit quality from a seedling, unless there are no other citrus trees of any variety in your usrroundings - which in S. FL I find unlikely.

Any citrus will do. Around here grafting is mostly done onto lemon rottstock.

Maren, in HI.

The Watcher · Answer

Cloning is called for. Air layering is often recommended for citrus trees.(snip)

Frogleg · Answer

"Most grapefruit come true-to-type from seed; however, growing acitrus tree from seed is undesirable. Seedling trees are juvenile,which means the plants will be vigorous, thorny, and have an erect,upright growth habit. Juvenility may last 6 to 15 years, during whichtime the tree does not flower .Grapefruit can be propagated bybudding, grafting, and cuttings, although the latter is leastdesirable. Budding and grafting are easily done and enable specificrootstocks and interstocks to be used. Budding is usually most easilydone in the spring. Budded or grafted trees will usually produce somefruit within three years, if properly cared for. Specific, detailedinformation on citrus propagation is available from your localCooperative Extension Office."

Rez · Answer

Must not apply to all citrus, cuz there is a lemon down at our club which came from a seed someone there stuck into the ground, and by the time it was 6 or 7 years old it was a big tree producing truckloads of lemons (tho they taste more like they want to be grapefruit, and some are almost that big), and if it's not hacked back with a chainsaw once a year, it takes over the neighbourhood! It grows new canes as much as ten feet long in a single season. No one has ever done a thing with it other than chop back the excessive growth.

~REZ~

Have very old Grapefruit tree and want to start successor with same taste

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