What's the deal with non-citrus people anyway? ;)

ah, the fabled flying dragon...

I have seen FD for sale here in N. Cal as just a plant unto itself, though admittedly only at one particular and strange garden center. Big sucker too--like 3 feet in height, multistemmed. I thought about getting one and then rooting cuttings of it...or maybe growing some fruit and collecting seeds so I'd have graftworthy plants when I'm like 100 years old...Have you asked about special ordering one at a nursery?

Choice A is probably what a lot of people do. I'm just gonna add to existing trees , and then if I later get my hands onto some real rootstock I will just take a bud and re-graft.

This won't help this year, but I've seen some website that sells FD seeds but you need to order like a whole liter or something ridiculous...I really want like, 30! (Maybe someone wants to trade?? )It makes laugh when I hear of people in other states who just find the fruit laying on the ground and use that...how unfair :)...You can use other rootstock as well. I've got sour oranges growing--a few types--and that is supposed to be good rootstock as well.

Last point--I can't speak for other growers and I should just ask them, but I know that at least for some of its trees Four Winds Growers does NOT use FD for all of it's "true dwarf" citrus. I have no idea what what it is--some type of orange? it's got an orange look to it, anybody know?--but many of my trees are from them and the suckers are NOT trifoliate-looking. The only tree I have seen producing a trifoliate-type sucker and grown by Four Winds was a Key lime...

Moral of the really long-winded story is you can still get a real nice tree on another rootstock.

HTH.

Thanks Rickjames! This helps BIGTIME. I think I will just go with Option A. That Flying Dragon as a plant is pretty nasty looking with all of the big thorns. When I asked the guy at my Armstrong Garden Center, he looked at me like I wanted to order the black plague.

On another note, I think I will go out to UCR at 2am one day and just walk around picking up fruit...

Why am I humming to the tune of "Superfreak now....?

As long as it is "Superfreak" and not "Can't Touch This".

I don't usually find Armstrong all that helpful--they can be surprisingly misinformed. Try to find a local small nursery that likes to make its customers happy. Strangely enough, the 2 most awesome garden centers I love around here are a Longs Drugs ( I swear to you their huge garden center is better than most nursery-only places and their manager is incredibly informed--I've bought CHCs from them right off the shelf) and an OSH who's nursery manager takes a lot if pride in his department and is aggressive with special orders.

They prolly have armed guards at the UC citrus groves after that tristeza virus thing so be sure to dress appropriately ;)

There are no true "dwarf" or semi-dwarf citrus rootstocks like there are for apples. Rootstocks of flying dragon, the most dwarfing, will make a tree 60% of the size of a standard tree, say 8-10feet. I prefer FD as a rootstock myself and have a dozen trees in the ground here near Houston, TX. I have a few hundred FD rootstocks growing right now. It takes a minimum of two years from seeds to get to pencil size for budding.

Here is a link that might be useful: mrtexas

If anybody is still looking for small quantities of Flying Dragon seed, contact me. I've gotten as many as 80 seeds out of 1 fruit. My 10 year old trees are about 7-8 feet tall. Anyone within driving distance of the Mobile, AL area is welcome to come dig their own.