Effect of cutting angle in the speed of healing under splice grafting method

Grafting of tomato plants using the technique of graft by splicing has an increasingly widespread use due to its high success rate, simplicity and ease of automation. This technique allows to control variables such as the cutting angle of the two seedlings to be grafted, among others. The aim of this experiment has been to evaluate the speed of healing, evolution and success of the graft, subject to different angles of union between seedlings, assessing time necessary until an increase of vigor and sturdy of the plants is appreciated, with disappearance of evident signs of wilt of the upper part and the appearance and proliferation of new axillary buds. This inflection point was estimated through a daily visual inspection of the seedlings made between 4 and 9 days after the grafting operation. For its study a total of 1500 grafts were made, distributed in 10 cutting angles, between horizontality and verticality, made with precision thanks to an automatic cutting device developed for this purpose. As result, it became evident that the greater the graft angle, and under equal environment of maturation, not only the success rate was greater, but the clinical recovery time decreased, contributing with a faster recovery and less time to stay in the healing tunnel. This decrease in cure time continued beyond the worsening of the success rate of the graft, verifying that successful grafts reduced their healing time for a higher cutting angle, between 60 and 80°. One of the possible causes that justifies this relation of cutting angle and speed of healing is the exponential increase of contact surface between seedlings, that on the one hand increases in equal measure the possibility of correspondence between vascular bundles, while on the other hand, generates greater stress in healing due to the need for proliferation of a greater callus dimensions in response to the wound.