Hi Kelogs. Not to worry about your language abilities. You do quite well. Your understanding of cleft grafting is accurate- it is often done on trunks or branches that are almost just stumps. I had imagined a tree more like my apple: quite a few well-established branches that I intend to keep, and a few that I would like to shift over. In my particular case I will have better luck changing over the branches that are higher up in the tree because they will be less affected by hormones which the tips of branches secrete and which drain down the tree to inhibit competition. Since you will remove those higher branches they need not concern you. I did not appreciate how much of the tree you intended to remove. One approach that has worked for me is to work over two or three branches on a fairly young tree and work my way up the tree over a period of a few years to continue converting branches, but not the main trunk, to a variety of fruit. I keep most of the tree unchanged in any given year but change some part of it every year. If I have a variety down below that's appealing I cut scions from it and graft them onto the higher scaffolds. I obviously can't keep that up forever, but it is quite workable now. I simply keep the lower scaffolds if I like their fruit. Hope I didn't make this too confusing.

Since you guys were talking about different grafting techniques, I thought I'd ask about my grafted Adenium. I noticed that the grafted scion has (I'm guessing) grown its own roots and caudex? That's the only assumption that I can come up with. You can clearly see the "V" notch in the original caudex. But then, if you look closer, the grafted section has its own roots and its own caudex. If it already had these, then there would've been no reason to graft it on to another caudex. Now it seems as though the newer caudex has outgrown the original. Can the grafted scions grow their own caudex? I've never seen this before on an Adenium...

When your mango seed sends up two or more plants if one is signifiantly larger than the other(s) it probably will be s new variety; the others should be mirror images of the mother tree (subject to minor changes). One of my Kent seeds produced two plants. I clef-grafted the slightly smaller plant and the graft 'took' but died while we were on a trip last month. Four new plants are visible around the base of the original seedling and I can see some green leaflets beginning to indicate a fifth new plsnt. All will be Kents, with no more than minor variations. I grafted an Alfonso mango on a Manila mango three years ago and it lived until this year. My clef graft interface was defective as I had bought a new mango grafting tool and the cutting surface was not centered properly. The junction did not heal well. Do not cut scion wood until the new emerging growth has begun growing (possibly a 1/32nd of an inch long). I strongly recommend using parafilm to wrap your scion wood and rootstock to reduce loss of moisture. Clean your tools with ~91% alcohol between cuts. I have grafted scion wood to branches only 1/16th of an inch in diameter on stone fruit but they are very difficult to handle. I recommend using ~3/16ths inch or larger scion wood. Provide shade for a few days so the junction will be a little cooler. Search on the Internet using 'Google', or other browser, with "mango grafting" as your topic. Read several different directions. Develop skills on other plants before you use your mango scion wood unless you have a ready source for more. Apples are a good fruit on which to learn. Most grafts do well if you are careful, keep your tools clean and do not touch the exposed cambium and other materials with your fingers (oil from the hands rates very highly in killing or damaging grafts.).

Any piece of any true to name example of a clonal cultivar like 'Crimson Queen' will be the same clone - you don't have to start with pieces of the same individual specimen to have the same genetic material.