Kev: Thanks for your compliment. If you are interested in grafting/T-budding I can show you or got to http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/citrus/budding/budding.htm or just type 'grafting' on Search and a lot of website will show up. The main thing is just start doing it. It does not have to be perfect for the first time but it will take if you try. I made a lot of mistakes fr my first times but they took and I was eating the fruits the next year. No not on citrus but in my plums and nectarines and peaches. Start there because they are so easy to do and take. Then you can start on your citrus. The main thing is just do it. You don't have to buy the expensive grafting knife- my favorite is the utility knife with replaceable blade, very sharp and thin. Then you could actually use any tape like electrician vinyl tape or even a 3/8" width rubber band. It took me over 3 years to get rid of my fear but once you start and succeed, there's nothing like it. It's just like having a baby or something. The main thing is keep everything clean sterile if you must.

Hi Fotograf, I am glad to see your sucessfull grafting techniques. I am going to try grafting this summer. I too have a large Meyer tree and I am going to root some cuttings and sell them on Craig's List. I also planned on doing some grafting myself. I just need to call my dad and have him come over and teach me. So you say the key is too graft when the tree is going to go thru a flush right? Does the root stock need to be flushing also? What kind of grafting have you had the most sucess with? How about soil. This is a huge debate here. I found that my dwarf key lime is not finicky at all. It seems to thrive in the Miracle Grow cactus and citrus soil. It cracks me up that the Miracle Grow company actually bags up this mix and claims that it is great for citrus. I repotted my Oro and found that Al's gritty mix is very effective in keeping the water away from the roots but it gives them t he necessary moisture they require. I have taken some horticultural classes but I focused more in landscaping when I wish I had focused more in horticulture. I loved botany but hated the technical end of the landscaping. So much I actually ended up dropping out. That was when I went to Longwood gardens. Spring is such a great time to visit. I would like to go back someday. What do you feed your trees? Wow..to have so many citrus you must have a huge greenhouse. That is my plan someday. I would love to move to Florida but I wont go until this citrus ban ends. There is no way in hell I would leave my trees behind or be forced to have them erradicated!! I love my citrus too much. Just like Mike I fell in love with the fragrance of the flowers and also the allure of watching my very own fruit grow and ripen. My first experience with a grafted tree was with a Calomondin. I loved watching that little tree grow but Iwas very dissapointed to pop one of those tiny oranges in my mouth and expect something sweet only to get a lemon flavor! Thanks for the pics and inspiring us to try grafting! Andrew

I think the comment about a new thread was directed at hottina44 and their question about indoor lighting. That was off topic. alex_g76, Some of those metals are perhaps toxic to mammals when ingested in too high a dose, but that is not the same as with plants. The plants will only take up what they need and leave the rest. Besides, if you look at the actual amounts of metals it is very tiny. Most are MICRO nutrients anyway, and are only needed by plants in very tiny amounts. They might be build up in the potting soil over time, but potted plants should be re-potted with fresh soil every few years anyway, long before the micro-nutrients will build up to any noticeable levels. So you need not worry about that imo. Btw, it's not commonly known, but almost all organic fertilizers are made for and will work best in In-Ground plantings. Organic fertilizers are made of raw ingredients, such as blood meal and bone meal, etc. Those components cannot be used by the plant as food itself. The fertilizer relies on the micro-organisms in the soil to ingest the raw ingredients and convert them to chemicals (yep, chemicals) that the plant can then uptake into it's roots. If those organic fertilizers are used in relatively sterile potting medium, not much happens. They pretty much just sit there. And your plant can starve while there is lots of food sitting right there. The components (nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus [NPK] and other macro and micro- nutrients) that the soil organisms produce from the raw ingredients in the organic fertilizer, is the same at a molecular level as what you find in a standard non-organic fertilizer. The benefits of organic fertilizers in the soil is that they feed and therefore increase the soil micro-organisms, which is great for the soil structure and the roots of the plants. Unfortunately this dynamic is very, very hard to reproduce in potted container plants. Therefore I always recommend standard non-organic fertilizers in container plantings, preferably a liquid type, or a slow-release pelleted type, such as Osmocote. Also, as a side note; the metals and minerals in fertilizers cannot by law be called “organic” because the law states that a component has to have Carbon in it and be derived from a once living source to be labeled “organic” Of course these items do not contain carbon and have never been alive. So if you see a fertilizer labeled “organic and natural”, the word “natural” is in reference to the mineral and metal ingredients only. In reading the posts on the thread that bmelz linked, about fertilizing in containers with organics, it does look like some have done it with success but do note that most of what they are talking about is seasonal vegetables and some short lived ornamental plants. Those are often re-potted annually with fresh mix and compost. That works quite well as there is a lot of micro-organisms in compost and manure. But that type of mix also breaks down very quickly, usually be the end of a growing season. When mix breaks down the speed of water drainage slows down a lot. If you're re-potting every spring that's no big deal and the old soil mix just goes back on the compost pile and new mix is made. But with a long lived plant like a citrus tree that soil break down is problematic. Citrus are very sensitive to soggy soil. Most will say they're sensitive to over-watering, but it's not really the water that's the problem, it's the lack of oxygen in an overly saturated, soggy soil. Plant roots need both water and oxygen, so in a long lived plant like citrus using an open and airy mix that lasts a long time and doesn't break down fast is very important. Unfortunately the components of those kinds of mixes, such as Al's Gritty mix and the 5-1-1 mix are pretty sterile. Hence the recommendations of standard non-organic fertilizers. Now if one was to re-pot their citrus trees annually or semi-annually with a compost based mix, then I do believe an organic fertilizer would work. But for myself, I would find that way too much work.

@strawchicago z5 Straw, I will get some pictures later today of my Jubilee's. We had torrential rains all yesterday and last night, so all of my plants are a little heavy right now including all the rose flowers that are blooming ;( Once they dry off and perk up from being so close to the ground I'll try to get some pictures, The 2 I have are looking really beautiful though with big fluffy magenta flowers. I took time to smell them all this morning for you. I'm not the best with scent descriptions, but I wanted to try for you- Olivia Austin rose- not very strong scent....can't comment Imogen - typical rose scent (to me) Carding Mill - Beautiful scent, fruity, almost tropical but not too fruity like my Westerlands. Jubilee Celebration - I really like this smell now that I got up close to them to sniff the flowers. It is fruity like Carding Mill, but with a strong kind of lemon zest scent to it. Lemon zest might not sound good, but this is my favorite smell of all the Austin's so far I think. If someone told me a flower smelled strongly like lemon zest, I probably wouldn't love the idea. So maybe that's not the best description of it but I'll try it again later and see if I can come up with a better description. I'm going to order some more of the rose though, I really like it :)