dwarf fruit trees

I ordered 3 dwarf citrus trees, well they were 6" and the question is can a plant that is 'air layered' off a dwarf tree grow to be a dwarf ?
These are not grafted, so do you think they will be dwarf ? ?
Next question...If they will grow dwarf can I 'air layer' cuttings off my dwarf apple and pear trees and do the same.
Thanks for any input, Dwight

I think you need to ask whoever sold these to you.

rentman, If in fact they were air layered they will be like the tree they came from. The tree they came from was not dwarf. It was a standard tree grafted to a dwarfing root stock. Your air layered bare root trees will not be dwarf. If the scions had been grafted to dwarf root stock instead of rooted directly from air layering they would them be dwarf.

Your post is interesting as I have never heard of citrus being air layered. But, of course, there are a whole lot of things out there I have not yet heard about. And thank god for that.

There is another problem with air layering and that is... the new tree grows like a branch. With at least some species tap roots are never developed. Don

Rentman, I have found the best bet on buying dwarf citrus trees is Four Winds Growers in Fremont, CA. I used to live in CA and have visited them several times and purchased many of their products. They sell nearly every variety of citrus in a dwarf form and are very knowledgeable about all kinds of citrus trees. I now live in the Memphis, TN area and have one of their dwarf lemon trees. Of course, I have to bring it inside here in the winter. But it is small enough that I can do that. The little tree is loaded with new lemons right now. You can't go wrong with Four Winds Growers!

Thanks for the input, as a boy in South FL we had a citrus tree that 5 different citrus 'budded' to it.
Don't know the root stock but it bore grapefruit, orange, lemon and two limes, each on a different limb.
These I have are differently not grafted to a different root stock.
I'm waiting for a reply from Gurneys Seed

I used to do my own citrus grafting when I lived in CA. I would grow the hardy citrus trifoliate plant from seed and use it as the root stock for whatever I was going to graft on to it. The best luck I had was to take the small 1 gal. pot with the trifoliate seedling and notch about an inch of the outer layer from it and do the same to the tree that I was going to use. Then I would just tape the two cut places together and let nature do the rest. I just had to make sure I kept the trifoliate pot watered while it was up in the other tree. After about three months, the two would grow together and I could cut the trifoliate top off and cut the other branch from the main citrus tree, and I then had the new plant ready to set out in the ground. As I mentioned, this worked best for me and it seemed that the grafted plant would be more dwarf than when I just air layered a branch from the same tree. I don't think air layering will produce a dwarf - but that's just my thoughts on it. You should be able to grow your own trifoliate orange tree there in KY - they grow out in the wild here in west TN. I think they are called flying dragons - they will certainly eat you alive if you get too close to one!

Hi Folks, are we all talking about the same thing when we use the term "air layering"?
To me it is the process of striping back the bark on a living branch and wrapping it in spagum moss and growing roots into the moss and then cutting it from the tree and planting it. Does this sound like what we are all talking about? That is, aside from my description being a shortcut summery. Don

Don I guess the question is "will air layering produce a dwarf. tree if taken from a dwarf."
I ordered 3 citrus that are said to be dwarf but are not grafted. And the discussion just expanded.

rentman, Air layering will produce a clone of the tree it was taken from. If it came from a standard tree grafted onto dwarfing root stock it will be a clone of the standard tree. It will not be a dwarf tree. That clone will develop a root system just like the standard tree would have had, if it had not been grafted.

This is not necessarily a good thing. Trees are grafted onto differing root stocks to overcome weaknesses or vulnerabilities in their own root systems.

Dwarf trees are created by grafting standard trees onto a less vigorous root stock. This in effect restricts the trees growth and you get a dwarf. The fruit producing part of the grafted tree is still a standard tree. Don

"will air layering produce a dwarf. tree if taken from a dwarf."
I do know this, a cutting can be taken from a tomato that has been grafted to a harder tomato root stock and the plant will grow as the 'top plant', not as the root stock it was grafted too.
So it will take a couple of years to find out about the ones I bought.

RENTMAN, THAT IS EXACTALY WHAT I HAVE BEEN SAYING. AS FAR AS I KNOW THERE ARE NO "DWARF" FRUIT TREES. THEY ARE CREATED...... BY GRAFTING A STANDARD TREE TO A LESS VIGOROUS/RESTRICTIVE ROOT STOCK. IF YOU REREAD MY POST YOU WILL SEE THAT I SAID THE AIR LAYERED TREE WILL BE A CLONE OF WHAT YOU CALL THE "TOP PLANT"

IT WILL HAVE ALL THE CHARACTERISTICS, GOOD AND BAD OF THE FRUIT PRODUCING "TOP PLANT". DON

rentman,

It's the rooting stock that turns a fruit tree into a dwarf. If the top were to be removed and rooted, which is what happens when one airlayers a cutting, the top would resume its vigorous growth.

Rentman, If you check out Gurney's Seed here on the Gardening Watchdog, you will see that they have 25 positive, 25 negative and 11 neutral comments over the past 12 months! I'm not too sure I would put a lot of stock in what they have to tell you (that is, if they ever respond to your question about this matter)!