Materials required: Rootstocks, scion, grafting knife, scateaure, polythene strip,
Procedure:
- Temperate fruits are commercially propagated through grafting and budding of scion cultivars on to a rootstock, which are raised by seeds or asexual method.
- Tongue method of grafting done in March gave good bud take success and is used commercially for multiplication of nursery plants of apple.
- However, in grafting more scion wood is required which induces early maturity of the plants and there are more chances of transmission of disease pathogens.
- Budding in summer is highly successful for all those problems. Among the various methods, T-budding is done in June gave good success but T-budding frequently resulted in some bud failure and connection between cambium of rootstock and scion is not always affected completively with the result the union are slowly formed.
- In recent years, chip budding have become very popular method of propagation in apple. In this method cambium of scion and rootstock unite very quickly and union is very perfect. It is easy to perform and it can be done any time, however, the highest success is obtained in Mid Feb and July-August.
Collection and treatment of scion wood:-
- For grafting, the scion wood are collected during dormant season from the identified and labeled mother trees.
- Generally one year old shoots are collected and each separate bundles must be carefully labeled for variety.
- The scion wood is to be stored for one or two months, therefore, labels and marking must be durable. Scion woods are stored in moist chamber or in cool chamber at 0-20C.
- Sticks can also be packed in moist sphagnum moss buried in soil or in the trenches at cool and shady place. B
- efore grafting, the scion wood are dipped in a solution of tree spray oil, bavistin, chlorpyriphos and then dried in the shady place, which helps to disinfect the scion wood.
- For summer budding, shoots are collected from healthy, disease and virus free mother plants at the time of budding.
- Remove all the leaves immediately to reduce water loss. For longer distance transportation, the scion wood are wrapped in thin polythene and no wet material is used for internal wrapping. such bundles are again covered in other material against bruising..
Aftercare and management of nursery plants:
- Nursery management practices play an important role in the production of healthy and quality nursery plants. The important operations followed after grafting and budding are:-
(i) Removal of polythene:
- This is an important operation, which must be done timely. After 4 weeks of sprouting as the grafted plants attain 30-40 cm height and the graft union start swelling, polythene strips is loosened by the sharp cut on the back side of the graft.
- In case of chip budding, it must be removed after 3 weeks.
(ii) Deshooting:
- After grafting and budding, the shoots generally arise from the rootstocks below the graft union.
- These shoots should be removed immediately after sprouting at a regular intervals, otherwise it result in failure of grafting and budding.
(iii) Staking:
- After removal of polythene, staking is must since the union are tender in summer and the plants blown off with higher wind velocity. Wooden sticks are generally used for staking of grafted plants.
(iv) Single stem:
- The Indian orchardists need single straight stem nursery plants for plantation, whereas in european countries feathered two years old grafted plants are preferred for plantation. In grafted or budded plants no scion shoots are allowed to grow and they are pinched off from the growing scions
(v)Mulching:
- Mulching of nursery plant is very essential especially in nursery established at water scarce areas to promote growth of plants.
- Immediately after grafting, nursery plants are mulched with 10 cm thick dry grass or with black polythene, which helps in soil moisture conservation and control weed population in the nursery.
(vi)Irrigation:-
- Irrigation is very essential for good growth of nursery plants of apple.
- Irrigation should be given at frequent intervals or alternate days.
- Watering should be done in evening time to avoid evaporation. Irrigation should be given through sprinkler systems.
(vii)Manuring and Fertilizations:-
- The requirement of manure and ferlilizers depends largely on the type and fertility of soil.
- Well rotten FYM at the rate 60-80 tonnes per hactare along with 30 Kg of P2O5, 60 Kg K2O and 60 Kg of N per hactare is applied in the nursery beds before sowing of seeds or transplanting of seedlings.
- Remaining half dose of nitrogen (60Kg/ha)is applied with the onset of rains (July).
(viii)Hoeing and weeding:
- The nursery beds should be kept always clean or free from weeds by manual weeding.
- Nursery beds should be dug 5-10 cm deep at least 3-4 times with the help of forks to loosen the soil.
(ix)Plant protection:
- Nurserymen have to be very careful in regular plant protection measures against powdery mildew, root rot, premature leaf fall, Woolly apple aphid, San Jose scale and Defoliating beetles with the application of recommended fungicides and insecticides.
- Besides this the nursery site should be changed every year.
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