फलदार पौधों में प्रसार तकनीक

Fruit plants, as basic input have vital importance in the development of fruit industry. However, long gestation period of fruit crops calls for utmost care in selection of planting material and adoption of right technology for its mass multiplication, as any mistake committed during the initial establishment of an orchard may result in huge economic loss at a later stage.

In commercial fruit production, planting material should be of high quality, uniform and true to the type.

Most of the fruit plants do not produce true to the type progeny when propagated through seed. Since fruit crops are cross pollinated, the progeny produced through seeds are not exactly that of parent. Therefore, fruit plants are mostly propagated through vegetative means like cutting, budding, grafting and through specialized vegetative structures.

Prior to planting in the field, the plants are kept in a specialized dedicated area called nursery. Therefore, fruit plant nursery is an area where fruit plants are nurtured during their early stage of growth until they are strong enough to be planted in the orchards.

Raising of nursery:

Following steps should be taken for raising quality nursery plants:

• The seed sowing should be done at recommended depth and the transplantation of seedlings is carried out at proper spacing for each kind of fruit plants.
• Periodical rouging of weak and diseased nursery plants should be done.
• Weeding and hoeing should be done regularly to avoid competition for nutrients by the weeds with nursery plants.
• Protective sprays should be carried out to avoid infection of serious diseases, keeping in view the prevailing climate in the area.

Advantages of nursery:

• In small area, plants are taken care in a better way.
• Favourable growth conditions can be provided in nursery area for better survival of plants.
• Insect/pests and diseases can easily be monitored and controlled in nursery area.
• Specialized structures like poly houses, shade net houses can be installed in the nursery for better seed germination and survival of young saplings.

Most common methods of fruit plant propagation are cutting, layering, budding and grafting.

1. Cutting -

Cutting refers to a portion of stem, root or leaf taken from the parent plant and grown in favourable environment to form roots and shoots. After successful formation of new roots and shoots, a new plant is produced. In case of fruit plants, following types of cuttings are used :

Hardwood cuttings: One year old mature cuttings are called hardwood cuttings. These types of cuttings are used to propagate grape, fig, kiwi, pomegranate

Semi-hardwood cuttings: Cutting consisting of partially mature wood taken from new spring growth of deciduous or evergreen plants g. olive and citrus.

Softwood cuttings: Cuttings taken from soft succulent new spring growth are called softwood cuttings. They are planted under mist.

Root cuttings: Cuttings prepared from root segments of the plants are called root cuttings g. blackberry and pecan nut.

2. Layering -

Layering involves induction of adventitious roots on stem while it is still attached to the mother plant. When roots are formed, it is detached from the mother plant and planted elsewhere to form new plant g. litchi.

3. Budding -

In budding, one bud and small portion of bark with or without wood is attached to another plant called rootstock which may be of same or different species. Budding is done during the period of the year when plant is actively growing.

Different types of budding are T- budding, inverted T- budding, chip budding, patch budding, ring budding, annular budding Budding is commonly done in guava, citrus, walnut, pecan nut etc.

4. Grafting -

Grafting involves attaching a small portion of shoot of mother plant containing 3 to 4 buds to the rootstock. Depending upon the fruit plant, it may be done when plant is actively growing or when plant is in dormancy.

Some of the fruit plants which are propagated when they are actively growing are mango, guava while grafting in plants like apple, pear, peach, plum etc. is done under dormancy. Different types of grafting methods include tongue grafting, wedge grafting etc.

In case of budding and grafting, a portion of mother plant is attached to another plant of same or different species called rootstock.

Rootstock provides the root system to the grafted or budded plant and influences nutritional uptake, affects growth characteristics, imparts resistance/tolerance towards many insects, pests and diseases in the budded/grafted plant.

A good rootstock should possess following characteristics:

• Rootstock should provide strong root system to the budded/grafted plant.
• Rootstock should possess uniformity so that all the budded/grafted plants show uniform characters in the orchard.
• It should be adapted to the local climatic conditions.
• It should be resistant to soil borne diseases.
• It should affect growth characters of the scion cultivar positively.
• In case of clonal rootstocks, these should have good rooting capacity through cutting or layering.

Until recently, in India most of the fruit plants were budded/grafted on the seedlings raised from the seeds collected from different sources. But now with the changing awareness, specific rootstocks from identified sources are being used which have specific characteristics.

Clonal rootstocks are widely used today to overcome adaptability problems. These are genetically identical clones of parent rootstock. These rootstocks are special because they have certain desirable traits like tolerance to winter cold/ high temperature, poorly drained soils, heavy clays or salty soils, very dry soils, pests and diseases etc.

Ultimate tree size can be controlled by the rootstock. It is therefore necessary to select the right kind of rootstock for the prevailing conditions in the area, so that growers can greatly enhance productivity with quality fruit production. Important rootstocks for different fruit crops are enlisted below:

Authors

Nirmal Sharma, Sanjeev K. Chaudhary, Neeraj Kotwal and Manoj Kumar

Regional Horticultural Research Sub-station, Bhaderwah, SKUAST-Jammu (J&K)-182222.

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