Comparative evaluation of grafting and budding methods in jackfruit

Abstract

Inarching is the most widely practised vegetative method of propagation for multiplication of jackfruit in tarai region, but the method is cumbersome, and produces less number of plants from a single mother plant. Therefore, the present experiment was conducted to find out other alternative method for commercial propagation of jackfruit. The study was conducted for twelve months with five methods of propagation viz., inarching, wedge grafting, veneer grafting, patch budding and ring budding. for the earliest bud sprouting (18.08 days) with highest survival (74.38%), number of leaves (14.21) and girth of new growth (5.93 mm) were recorded with wedge grafting performed in the month of March. The highest number of primary branches (3.47) and length of primary root (15.36 cm) and secondary roots (32.84 cm) were obtained in plants multiplied through inarching in July. Maximum length of new growth (14.49 cm) at 90 days after fraftong (DAG) was observed in wedge grafting performed in April. Based on the results, wedge grafting has been found most appropriate propagation method to perform from December to April (best in March) under tarai conditions of Uttarakhand. Therefore, wedge grafting can be practised as an effective alternative method for jackfruit propagation instead of traditional inarching as the highest proportion of saleable grafted plants (77.56%) were also obtained through wedge grafting at 150 DAG.