STUDIES ON SOFTWOOD GRAFTING IN WOOD APPLE (FERONIA LIMONIA L.)

A study on softwood grafting in wood apple was conducted in the Department of Horticulture, UAS, Dharwad during 2007-08. The experiment results revealed that multiplication of wood apple plants by softwood grafting using differently aged root-stocks under poly mist house condition was found to be better than open condition. Early sprouting (23.8 days) was noticed when ten-month-old rootstocks were used whereas, highest percent success (97.1) and maximum survival percentage (96.2) was noticed on eight-month-old rootstock. Maximum number of leaves (13.7) and leaf area (7.3 cm²) were recorded in nine-month-old rootstock, while highest graft height (27.6 cm) and number of sprouts (5.6) were recorded in eight-month-old rootstock after graft success. The interaction effects of age of rootstock and growing condition were significant and revealed that ten-month-old rootstock in poly mist house condition proved to be best as the lowest number of days were taken for graft success (19.4). Eight-month-old rootstocks produced the highest percent success and survival percentages (97.1 and 96.2, respectively). The maximum number of leaves (16.7) was observed on eight-month-old rootstocks, which was on par with seven-month-old rootstock (16.1) under poly mist house condition. A significantly lower number of leaves (8.5) was recorded on five-month-old rootstocks under open condition. The results pertaining to leaf area showed a significantly maximum leaf area (8.5 cm²) on nine-month-old rootstocks under poly mist house condition. A significantly lower leaf area (4.3 cm²) was recorded on ten-month-old rootstocks under open condition.