Abstract

Mango Grafting: -Experts in graft mango cultivation have found out by experience that the qualities of the stock play an important part on the graft, influencing the quality, size, and flavour of the fruit, prolificness or otherwise and the time of flower- ing. In preparing the stocks, the gardeners are cutting off the tap roots to facilitate potting, thereby forcing the plant to develop more surface roots. This is the chief reason why graft maugo gardens have short life of 25 to 30 years in Alamanda and the neighbourhood. To improve the qualities and the longevity of the grafts, experts are now planting seeds of superior varieties by the side of the grafts, while starting fresh gardens. After the plant from the seed makes sufficient growth, the graft is then trans- ferred to it and the original stock without tap roots gradually removed. For grafting, the trees are planted very close, about six feet apart and the branches forced to creep on the ground, so that the stocks for grafting are placed on the ground and formed into small beds by raising small bunds round them, rendering 'watering easier.

Keywords: