Tip Grafting
Summary
Grafting
leafy scions onto the lopped-off tender terminals of rootstocks and
placing the grafted plants under intermittent mist until healed, has
proven to be a very useful method of grafting the mamey (Pouteria sapota),
black sapote (Diospyros
digyna jacq.,) caimito (Chrysophyllum cainito
L.), jackfruit (Artocarpus
hetorophyllus Lam.). and other difficult-to-graft fruit
trees. Cutting-grafts of fig (Ficus
carica L.) treated in the same manner also proved to be an
efficient grafting technique.
Materials and Method
Scions
are taken with fully developed, but not senescent, leaves. Terminal
buds are preferred. About 2/3 of leaf tips are removed. Base of scions
are cut to form long, slim wedges. Rootstocks are lopped off close to
the terminal where tissue has not become hardened. A longitudinal cut
is made in the rootstock deep enough to accommodate the wedge of the
scion, and the wounds of stock and scion are bound together with para
film or grafting elastics and graft wax. The grafted plant is then
placed under intermittent mist to prevent dehydration until the graft
union is well healed.
In the case of the mamey, everything is
exacting. If leaves of the scion are too old, they will fall off under
mist and rotting will be faster than healing. If elastic grafting bands
are used, but no wax, the wounded surfaces will buckle out like carrot
strips in water and the callous will not grow together. If household
rubber bands are used instead of grafting elastics, they slip on the
waxed surface and release the graft. Best results to date are 35 out of
37. When tip-grafting mamey under mist, very young plants, two or three
weeks old, are best. Tissues are undifferentiated and the cotyledons
still provide nourishment. Older plants can be used successfully for
rootstocks if the graft is inserted into the cheesy growing tip.
Caimito,
black sapote, and jack fruit have growing tips that are much smaller in
diameter and are more tedious to handle, however they are not so
exacting that everything is right. Also they can be held in place with
para film which serves both to hold wounded tissues in contact and to
keep water out of the wound.
When making fig cuttings grafts,
young succulent, green growth with long internodes serve best.
Technique is the same except the rootstocks are mere cuttings which
will root while the graft wounds are healing under mist.
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