Stone grafting in mango (Mangifera indica L.) cv. Amrapali

The major bottlenecks in increasing area under mango cultivation are non-availability of quality planting material and efficient methods of grafting. Though inarching and veneer grafting methods are commonly followed but are cumbersome, inefficient and require more labour inputs. The stone grafting (epicotyl grafting) is easy, cheap and one of the rapid method to produce large number of nursery plants with better quality in shorter time and area dimensions. The age of rootstock is one of the most dominating factors, which affect the growth and survival of mango stone grafts. However, moderate temperature and high relative humidity at the time of grafting also plays vital role for improving bud take success. In present study seedling rootstocks of different age groups were grafted to see the effect of time of stone grafting on bud take success, survival and growth parameters of stone grafts in Amarpali cultivar of mango. Epicotyl grafting performed after 10 days of germination gave best results.