It all started when I identified my neighbor’s citrus tree as rootstock. The fruit was unpleasantly sour and very seedy, nothing you would ever eat. The leaves were in groups of three. I looked at the base of the trunk and could see where the intended top of the tree had been overgrown by these branches making terrible fruit.
It was the classic loss of a citrus tree from rootstock suckers. It happens time and again.
(My post, “Beware of citrus rootstock suckers.”)
But which rootstock was this? It looked most like C-35 to me.
I could use this, I thought. I could take a fruit, sow the seed, and later graft on a chosen variety. I could make my own citrus tree from scratch.
On February 11, 2024, I did the sowing. I let the seedling grow for two years, in which time I almost forgot about it.
Then in January of this year, 2026, I toured the greenhouses of Four Winds Growers, a California nursery operation that has been making citrus trees for generations. It got me excited about citrus, and it made me remember my C-35 seedling, and it gave me an idea for how I would graft it.
Back at home, on February 19, I cut a little branch off my Shiranui mandarin tree. I wanted to make a second Shiranui tree since it is my wife’s favorite variety but the location of my first tree is not ideal. And the grafting method I used was the one I had seen used with great success at Four Winds, a simple splice.
To aid the healing, I kept the grafted tree — Shiranui top onto C-35 seedling bottom — on a heat mat in my garage for a couple weeks. I was again trying to imitate what I’d seen at Four Winds, where heaters are used inside the greenhouses.
In great anticipation, I watched for growth. In mid-April, at last, I could see that the buds on the Shiranui scion were growing strongly.
And the splice graft had healed well.
I hate taking care of plants in containers so I dug a hole. Upon removing the ball from the pot, I found that the roots at the bottom of the one-gallon container were circling but I teased them straight and spread them in the hole.
I stepped back to admire the little guy, and I felt like saying, “Look, Mom. I made a citrus tree from scratch!”
Want to make your own citrus tree from scratch?
You can sow a seed for the rootstock like I did or you can buy rootstock.
Four Winds Growers sells C-35 seedlings and other citrus types for rootstock whenever they have more than they need. (See the Four Winds citrus rootstocks page here.)
You can also buy a grafted citrus tree from a nursery and then graft it over to your desired variety, thereby treating it as a rootstock. If doing this, it’s best to use a citrus type that is similar to the one you’re grafting. For example, buy an orange tree if you’re planning to graft on an orange variety.
Where to get the scion, the top fruiting part? A reliable source that I have used in the past and that has a plethora of citrus types available is the University of California’s Citrus Clonal Protection Program.
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