Plant Propagation and Nursery Management (1+1)

Introduction

Budding is a form of grafting in which one bud and a small section of bark with or without wood is used, in comparison to grafting, in which the scion consists of a short-detached piece of stem tissue with several buds. Chip budding and T-budding are the most important types of budding for fruit crops and woody ornamentals. The type of budding method to be adopted depends upon the bark’s slipping, ability of the stock and scion, which coincides with the period of active growth in season and when newly formed tissues are easily torn as the bark is lifted from the wood. Among the different methods, chip budding can only be done when bark is not slipping.

Advantages

• It is the best propagation method if the propagating material is scarce and valuable.
• Budding is useful in plants, which release excessive wound gum (e.g. stone fruits) from injury caused to wood portion of the stem at the time of grafting.
• Budding union is stronger than grafting so damage by wind or storm is less compared to grafted plants.
• Budding is comparatively simple, efficient and quicker method of propagation than grafting.
Selection of bud-wood

• While selecting bud-wood, one should careful enough to use vegetative buds than the flowering buds for budding.
• The vegetative buds are usually small and pointed while flower buds are large and plump. In case of bud wood to be procured from distant place, the leaves must be removed by leaving petiole intact.
• The bundle of bud-wood should be packed in moist jute or sphagnum moss, or cloth and should be kept moistened in the transit.