Response of Rootstock Planting, Scion Type and Time of Grafting on Grafting Success and Subsequent Growth of Walnut Plants

Abstract

This was carried out in the Experimental Farm, of Division of Fruit Science, SKUAST-K- Shalimar during the years 2017 and 2018. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications having 15 plants per replication. In this study rootstock were planted at three different timings (2nd fortnight of November, 2nd fortnight of December, 2017 and 2nd fortnight of January, 2018) and were grafted with two different scion types (Middle portion of current season growth with 3-5 buds and Current season growth (3-5buds) with small piece of 2- year old-wood) on two different dates (3rd week of February and 1st week of March, 2018) under polyhouse conditions. The results obtained indicated that initial graft success (75%), leaf area (350 cm2), leaf number (11.4), scion girth (4.8 cm), shoot length (21.8 cm), final plant height (132.9 cm) and final graft success (69%) were significantly better when rootstocks were planted during 2nd fortnight of November as compared to other timings of rootstock planting. Among two different scions viz., (Middle portion of current season growth with 3-5buds) and (Current season growth (3-5buds) with small piece of 2-year old wood), initial graft success (63%), leaf area (309.9 cm2), leaf number (12.9), scion girth (4.3 cm) and shoot length (19.3 cm), final plant height (119.8 cm) and final graft success (58%) were observed better with scion type having middle portion of current season growth with 3-5 buds. Time of grafting significantly influenced all the recorded parameters and best results were obtained when grafting was performed during 3rd week of February as compared to 1st week of March.