After my failed attempt at citrus grafting last year, I find myself once again browsing the Citrus Clonal Protection Program (CCPP) website.  If you're unfamiliar with the CCPP, they are a wonderful source of citrus budwood.  A cooperative program between UC Riverside, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the US Department of Agriculture and California citrus growers, the program provides a safe means for introducing disease free citrus from other regions of the nation and other countries into the state.  Located at the University of California Riverside's Lindcove Research and Extension Center in the San Joaquin Valley, the CCPP makes available over 250 varieties of disease free citrus budwood from across the country and across the word.

For gardeners, the CCPP provides an inexpensive means of obtaining citrus budwood (75 cents per bud plus shipping).  You have an enormous variety of citrus to select from, including eighty four varieties of mandarins, thirteen varieties of blood orange, thirty five varieties of navel orange, sixteen varieties of Valencia orange, fourteen varieties of sweet orange, five varieties of sour orange, twenty four varieties of grapefruit and pummelo, twenty varieties of tangelo and tangor, six varieties of Eureka lemon, nine varieties of Lisbon lemon, fourteen other varieties of lemon like a seedless lemon and a Laphitiotiki lemon, nine varieties of  lime, limetta and limequat, seventeen specialty citrus varieties including Buddha's Hand, kumquat, orangequat, mandarinquat, citron, calamondin, and Yuzu.

Go to their website at www.ccpp.ucr.edu and follow the directions for obtaining a username and password.  Once you obtain those, you can order budwood online.  Budwood is shipped only a few times a year.  A calendar of cutting and shipping dates can be found on their website.  The March deadline for placing your order is April 2, 2017.