Shoot-tip grafting has been 100% efficient in eliminating the Citrus tristeza virus (CTV), Citrus exocortis viroid (CEVd) and cachexia-xiloporosis viroid from varieties of the citrus germplasm bank at the Centro de Citricultura Sylvio Moreira CCSM-IAC. However, this technique has shown to be only 60% efficient in getting rido of the citrus psorosis virus complex, showing the necessity of association with thermotherapy to assure a complete virus-free condition. For this experiment, nursery trees were maintained in a climatic chamber at 38 ºC in 16 h light and 32 ºC 8 h darkness for 60 days, and the meristematic apices were used to shoot-tip graft. After the shooting of the meristematic part, this shoot tip graft was over grafted on seven-month old 'Rangpur' lime (Citrus limonia) seedlings, and developed under greenhouse conditions. Clones of sweet oranges (Citrus sinensis) 'Lima', 'Rubi', 'Piralima', 'Salustiana', 'João Nunes', 'Rosa' and 'Pêra Caire' treated this way had 100% success in psorosis virus elimination as shown by a biological index using 'Do Céu' sweet orange as the indicator plant.
