Abstract

In the course of his lecture Mr. Gandhi spoke at length on the propagation and the most modern cultural methods for fruit trees as practised in different fruit growing countries of the world. Regarding the propagation of woody dicotyledons, he said that while making a stem cutting the basal cut need not necesserily be close below a bud; but very often inter-nodal basal cuts give better results and the close-below-bud cut is only desirable in case of stems which already possess pre-formed root initials in or near the nodul region. The pre-ent practice of Inyering end branches of large orchard trees by tongue, ring or bending methods as practised in India is wasteful. A ground nursery could be more advantageously established of young trees closely planted in rows and these could be bent flat on the ground. The young shoots arising from the horizontally laid main trunk and branches could be rooted by mounting earth around their bases after they have made a six inch growth. Plants that root with difficulty could be made to root by etiolating these layer shoots before they break from their buds. This is effected by excluding light from the buds during the earlier stages of their growth by means of covering them with a layer of soil. The young shoots thus develop in the dark and push their way through the soil above. Such shoots are etiolated at their base and develop a satisfactory root system. The rooted shoots could be annually removed in the propagating season except one or two vigorous shoots at the base of the trunk which could be again used to lay flat for producing next year's crop of rooted shoots. This method of etiolating layer shoots has been perfected and commercially adopted in England by the Fruit Research Station at East Malling.

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