We’re excited to work with Castle High School‘s Hoʻoulu ʻOpio Academy of Natural Resources Agriculture group to graft and raise lemon trees for multiple schools on the windward side of Oʻahu. Lead by Kumu Carlos Kauahi Severson, FFA Advisor, 24 students learned to bud graft citrus trees and are now caring for the trees in their greenhouse.
Supporting Windward Project Lemon Tree
The goal with this partnership is for Castle High students to learn commercial agriculture processes and serve middle and lower schools in their area. They have also prepared land and planted 12 lemon trees on the Castle High campus.
Learning to Bud Graft Lemons
Most students didn’t even know that most fruit trees are grafted. Grafting is a term for cutting a preferred fruit top onto a strong rootstock. They also learned that fruit of the same species, like citrus, can all be grafted onto a single rootstock. This means that lemons, limes, oranges, calamansi, kumquats, jabon (pomelo) and other citrus can all be placed onto a single tree.
In the first session, the students used the Project Lemon Tree Curriculum lesson, Bud Grafting, to cut and peel sapling bark, fillet buds from budstock, place buds, and wrap and seal buds. Each sapling received two bud grafts, a primary graft and a secondary backup graft.
All buds were self-rated by students based on their feelings about the success of each step of the process. Scores were then aggregated for an overall score. This score was used to predict the chances of a successful bud taking. Almost all assessments showed that they were strongly convinced that their bud would take.
Students then placed the grafted stock in their greenhouse for three weeks before checking buds for success.
50% Bud Graft Success Rate
Kumu Carlos reported a month later that only about half of the buds took. This was far short of what students expected, but for this is an excellent take rate for first time grafters. The class will re-graft plants that didn’t have a take. Huge mahalo to Kumu Carlos and class for playing Project Lemon Tree.
Share your experience with Project Lemon Tree bud grafting in the comments below or send us a message!
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