Budding business in lemons

• Nurseryman Tony Waite getting to grips with some lemon seedlings for the intricate task of bud grafting

By Tony Scott,
September 15, 2021

The Woodlea Nursery at Springfield is about to set into bud grafting 2000 lemon tree seedlings.

The task is at the behest of North Scottsdale farmer Jerrod Nicholls, who planted the state’s first commercial lemon orchard of about 1000 trees two years ago.

But he is looking to speed things up.

“The seedlings we got originally are still growing, but we should be able to have a better result with a more vigorous root stock.”

He’s been working on a plan with Woodlea’s Tony Waite, who has the root stock growing but is yet to order the bud material.

Mr Waite expects to do the grafting in a couple of sessions of 1000 each.

“It will probably take three or four of us three days to do that many.”

“It will be a pretty big job once we get cracking, but the tree should start to produce fruit a couple of years after planting.”

Mr Nicholls always intended to increase the size of the lemon orchard and believes the grafted trees will lead to a quicker return.

“I thought it a bit strange that no one was growing lemons commercially because there’s certainly an opportunity to supply supermarkets.

“They generally import them from the mainland or even overseas, so Woolworths have said they’ll take as much as we can produce provided they meet quality standards.

“We might not need them for a few years though because the independents will take all we can grow till we get to full production.”

Mr Nicholls said 200 of his next consignment of seedlings he intends sending to a friends on Flinders Island.

“It’s perfect citrus country over there, a mild winter a high pH soil and no rabbits.”

He said rabbits nibbling off new shoots had been one of the challenges encountered with the first plantings.

“We’ll sleeve this next lot to give them a bit more protection early on.”

Once established lemon trees are renowned to remain productive for up to 40 years with yields of 40 to 50 kilograms of fruit after five or six years.

He says the original trees are probably still a couple of years away from producing lemons but the more vigorous strains he’s planning to plant later this year will probably catch up.