Effect of method and time of grafting on bud sprouting percentage, time of leaf burst, total number of branches and leaf length of kiwifruit under temperate conditions of Kashmir

The present studies entitled “Studies on vegetative propagation techniques in kiwifruit under Kashmir conditions” was carried out in the experimental farm, Division of Fruit Science during 2017 and 2018. The experiment was laid out in a Completely Randomized block Design with three replications. In this experiment, three methods of grafting (cleft, tongue and whip) were performed on three different dates (3rdweek of February, 1st week of March and 3rd week of March) with Hayward/Tomuri grafted on 2 years old seedling rootstock under field conditions. The results indicated that bud sprouting percentage (74.68), time of leaf burst(38.86 days after date of grafting), number of branches (3.70) and leaf length (9.45cm) were significantly better with cleft grafting followed by tongue grafting (71.55, 40.78, 3.75 and 9.31cm respectively). Bud sprouting percentage (72.85), Time of leaf burst (38.6 days after date of grafting), number of branches per plant (3.85) and leaf length 9.53cm) were significantly better during 3rd week of March followed by 1st week of March(71.02, 39.9, 3.52 and 9.27cm respectively. The interaction between method and type of scion was found significant for different parameters under study except number of branches. From this experiment it can be concluded that among different methods, time and scion type used, cleft grafting performed during 3rd week of March with Hayward cultivar significantly influenced bud sprouting percentage (82.3), time of leaf burst (35.8 days after date of grafting), number of branches (4.2) and leaf length (10.6 cm).