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3 ReferencesTechnology: Tongue grafting of Sohiong (Prunus nepalensis Serr.)
Indian Farmer 2(8): 639-647; August-2015
Rymbai
et al
1 | P a g e
1*Rymbai, H., 2Patel, R.K., 1Deshmukh, N.A., 1Jha, A.K.
1Division of Horticulture, ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam – 793 103,
Meghalaya, India
2ICAR-NRC for Litchi, Mushahari, P.O. Ramna, Muzaffarpur- 842 002, Bihar, India
*Corresponding author: rymbaihort@gmail.com
runus nepalensis (Rosaceae) is
an important indigenous
underutilized fruit of the entire
northeast India. However, it is
considered as one of the important
underutilized fruit crops in the hills of
Khasi and Jaintia, Meghalaya. The fruit
tree is growing wildly in the forest areas
and as backyard crop. Since time
immemorial, this fruits are being
utilized by the tribal in various forms.
Fruits are eaten fresh when ripened.
The sohiong fruit quality is excellence
with unique colour, taste and flavor. It is
also richer in nutrition. It has a good
potential for extraction of natural edible
colour required in food industry. It is
has also been observed that its colour
added to squash and jam may last
longer of around one year. RTS and
cherry wine are also being prepared
from pulp and juice of the fruit due to its
imparting purple colour to the wine.
The expansion of area for commercial
cultivation of this crop in the state may
offer generation employment and
income generation for the tribal
peoples. Furthermore, it is high time to
popularize the crop for its proper
collection and strategies management
techniques for sustainable production
and conservation. So far there are very
few established orchard of this crop in
the region. This is due to non-
availability of standardized propagation
technique which caused a major
hindrance in multiplication and area
expansion of sohiong. In view of this, a
‘Tongue’ grafting technique for easy and
quick multiplication of sohiong was
developed at the ICAR Research
Complex for NEH Region, Umiam,
Meghalaya, India. It was found that
plants of sohiong obtained through
tongue grafting were found to give
higher growth characters over seedling
plants with respect to all characters
with the exception of plant height were
maximum was recorded in seedling
plant (120.56 cm). Maximum stem
diameter (17.47 mm), number of
branch (6.72), plant spread in E-W
(49.81 cm) and N-S (42.86 cm) was
P
Technology:
Tongue Grafting in
Sohiong
(
Prunus nepalensis
Serr.)
Indian Farmer 2(8): 639-647; August-2015
Rymbai
et al
640 | P a g e
recorded in grafted plants as compared
to seedling plants.
Key words: Prunus nepalensis L.,
Propagation, Tongue grafting
INTRODUCTION
Prunus nepalensis is locally
known as Sohiong, belongs to family
Rosaceae. This crop is an important
indigenous underutilized fruit of the
entire northeast India. It is widely
distributed in different part of the
northeastern region, particularly, Khasi
and Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya, situated
within 2501’ and 2605’ North latitudes
and 85049’ and 92052’ East Longitudes
with altitude ranging from 300 to 2000
m and temperature 2 0C - 36 0C. The
fruit tree is growing wildly in the forest
areas and as backyard crop. So far there
are very few established orchard of this
crop in the region. Sohiong has an
immense potential for commercial
cultivation in the state as well in other
part of the world which is relative cool
climate.
Since time immemorial, this
fruits are being utilized by the tribal in
various forms. Fruits are eaten fresh
when ripened. The sohiong fruit quality
is excellence with unique colour, taste
and flavor. It is also richer in nutrition
(Rymbai et al., 2014; Deka and Rymbai,
2014). It has a good potential for
extraction of natural edible colour
required in food industry. It is has also
been observed that its colour added to
squash and jam may last longer of
around one year. RTS and cherry wine
are also being prepared from pulp and
juice of the fruit due to its imparting
purple colour to the wine. The
expansion of area for commercial
cultivation of this crop in the state may
offer generation employment and
income generation for the tribal
peoples. Furthermore, it is high time to
popularize the crop for its proper
collection and strategies management
techniques for sustainable production
and conservation. However, due to non-
availability of standardized propagation
technique has caused a major hindrance
in multiplication and area expansion of
sohiong. In view of this, the Division of
Horticlture, ICAR Research Complex for
NEH Region has developed a ‘Tongue’
grafting technique for easy and quick
multiplication of sohiong (Patel et al.,
2011).
Among different propagation
grafting techniques experimented in
sohiong, it was found that tongue
grafting was significantly produced
maximum graft takes, growth and
development of grafted plants. Tongue
grafted plants are stronger, because the
interlocking tongues are held under
compression by the natural springiness,
i.e. elasticity of the wood of both stock
and scion. This naturally generates the
pressure needed for graft union
formation. The additional length of the
vascular cambium exposed along the
cut surfaces of a tongue graft, original
diagonal cut plus tongue cut is much
greater than the length of cambium
exposed by only the diagonal cut
without the tongue. This results in
Indian Farmer 2(8): 639-647; August-2015
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greater cambial contact between stock
and scion of a tongue than of a splice
graft.
2. Selection of mother plant
The main objective of mother
block is to get healthy scion and making
available enough scion sticks. The
performance of the progenies depends
entirely upon the characteristics of the
mother plant. There is great variability
in fruit types among different sohiong
genotypes. Therefore, selection of the
elite mother plant must be done with
maximum care. The basic
characteristics while selecting mother
plants must be considered are;
(i) Consistently high performance and
yield over several years
(ii) Healthy and free from incidence of
diseases and insect pests
(iii) Plants with good quality
parameters.
The monitoring and maintenance
of these mother blocks should be done
regularly so that they remain healthy
and free from diseases and insect pests.
It must be pruned regularly to maintain
them in vegetative phase and to
produce enough shoots for propagation.
The prune parts should be applied with
Bordeaux paste. Periodical removal of
criss-cross branches, water sprouts and
diseased branches is necessary.
3. Harvesting of ripened fruits
To raise seedling for rootstock,
only the well ripened fruit are harvested
and collected usually in the month of
September – October for seed
extraction. The ripened fruits are
indicated by fully blackish or purplish
coloured and slightly soften when
touched. If fruits are not fully ripened,
there may be difficulty in removal of
pulp, and embryo may not be fully
mature to become capable of germinate.
4. Seed extraction
The seed should be extracted
from fruit by removing the flesh portion
manually. This can be carried out by
subjected the fruits to fermentation.
4.1. Fermentation
Fermentation of the fruits are
carried out by keeping the collected
fruits in a bucket containing water for a
period of about 3 – 4 days. The soaking
is done for quick fermentation of pulp
adhering on seed, thus facilitate easy
removal of the stone.
4.2. Pulp removal
Following 3 – 4 days of
fermentation, the fruit pulp are
removed from the stone by rubbing the
fermented fruits between the palm
under water or by holding it under
water and using a brush, to scrub it
clean. Seeds extraction can be also be
done by maceration and recovered by
flotation. The extracted seeds are
washed in water, preferably running
water and allow seeds to air dry under
shade for 24 hours.
5. Raising of rootstock
5.1. Stratification
The present of dormancy in
sohiong, prevent its seed from
immediate germinate upon sowing.
Seed dormancy in sohiong may be
imposed due to its hard seed coat and
Indian Farmer 2(8): 639-647; August-2015
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internal regulated by the inner seed
tissues. Therefore, sohiong seeds
require special treatments to overcome
dormancy, thereby causing it to be more
ready to germinate. The seed required
to be subjected to a particular duration
of moist-prechilling to break dormancy
for germination, this prosess is known
as stratification. In stratification, the
freshly extracted seed are kept in a
closed pot containing alternated layers
of moist sand and stored at low
temperature, about 4 – 8 °C.
Periodically, the medium are monitor
that it should be slightly moist but not
dry nor wet. The length of time of
stratification is about 3 – 4 weeks,
indicating by the initiation of seed coat
rupturing at 3 weeks.
5.2. Primary nursery
Once the seed has completed
stratification, it is ready to start growing
and utilized its energy reserves at a
rapid rate. The stratified and ruptured
seeds can be sown during October –
November in either of the following two
methods;
5.2.1. Polybag
The ruptured seeds following
stratification should be taken out of
moist sand and sown during October –
November in polybag having thickness
of 100 gauge and size of 10 x 15 x 10”.
The ruptured are sown in polybag
containing media of equal amount of
soil, sand and FYM mixture. Seed
sowing depth is about 5 cm. Following
which the polybag are arranged in rows
for easy management. Sowing in
polybag is preferred over seed bed due
to easy removal of seedling while
transferred the seedling to secondary
nursery. The mortality rate during
secondary nursery operation is minimal
as the seedling are transplanting along
with the earthball.
5.2.2. Seed bed
Sowing of stratified seeds can
also be done in nursery bed containing
equal amount of soil, sand and FYM
mixture. Seed bed must be 1 m width
and 10 – 15 cm above ground level. It
must be fine tilt and avoid of any soil
clotting and stone. Sowing depth is
about 5 cm depth. Seed are sown in line
at 5 cm between the seeds and 10 cm
between the lines. After sowing, the
seed beds are covered with straw mulch
and irrigate gently. The straw mulch
should be immediately removed when
the germination has initiated in the bed.
During transplanting to secondary
nursery, a high mortality (25 - 30%)
was recorded in seedling grown in
primary seed bed. Therefore, the
seedling must be intached with
earthball as much as possible during
transplanting.
6. Germination
Seeds germination starts at
about 30 to 45 days after sowing. The
germination percentage in sohiong is
about 95%. Sohiong seed coat is hard;
however, it does not required
scarification prior to stratification as
shown by its high percentage of seed
germination. This indicates that seeds of
sohiong do not have double dormancy.
Indian Farmer 2(8): 639-647; August-2015
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Germination of seeds can be improved
by treatment with GA3 @ 150-200 ppm
or Thio-urea @ 5 g/litre water.
7. Secondary nursery
Seedling after 3 -4 months of
sowing attained 15 – 20 cm height.
These are transfer to secondary nursery
in polybag (10x15x 20 cm) containing
equal amount of soil, sand and FYM
mixture. While transplanting, the earth
ball must be kept intact with the roots
to avoid maximum mortality. The
seedling must be planted in the middle
of the polybag and gently press the soil
with fingers. Pressing the soil near the
stem of the seedling must be avoided as
it caused breakage of the roots due to its
brittleness. Following transplanting,
light shower irrigation must be given
for proper establishment of seedlings.
8. Selection of scion
A scion of about five to six month
old shoot should be selected as scion
material from healthy mother plants of
sohiong. Shoot selection should be
carried out during September, when the
shoots are in dormant stage. The scion
stick should be of pencil thickness
preferably the same size as the stock
and contained with 3 to 4 internodes of
25-30 cm long containing dormant
plumb buds should be used for grafting.
If the stock is larger than the scion,
contact can be made on only one side.
The scion should never be larger than
the stock. The shoot which has initiates
sprouting or shows sign of green tips of
buds must be avoided, as there is very
low percentage of graft take. Avoid any
shoot that is older. Scion stick should be
straight and have many vegetative buds.
Avoid any wood with spurs containing
fruit or blossom. Watersprouts, i.e.,
excessively vegetative shoots should be
avoided. Avoid suckers that arise from
the rootstock, below the union. One of
the problems with using watersprouts
is that the tissue often lacks in stored
carbohydrates, which is important in
the wound healing and callusing
process. Shoot of moderately vigorous
rather than vigorous upright sucker
wood should be selected. The bud wood
should be collected when buds are
completely dormant and as late in the
dormant season as possible to minimize
the length of storage. The scion stick
must be not be winter injured and must
be free from pest and diseases. Scions
should be severed and cut with sharp,
clean knives and placed immediately in
moistened plastic bags or bucket
containing water. It is good practice
during the harvesting of scions and the
making of grafts to clean the cutting
tools regularly. This may be done by
flaming or immersing them in a
sterilizing solution. Isopropyl (rubbing)
alcohol also works well as a sterilant,
although it evaporates quite readily. An
alternative sterilizing solution may be
prepared by mixing one part household
bleach with nine parts water by volume.
However, this bleach solution can be
highly corrosive to certain metals.
9. Storage of Scion stick
The selected scion shoots may be
used immediately for grafting after
Indian Farmer 2(8): 639-647; August-2015
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detached from the mother tree. For best
results, harvest only as much scion
wood as can be used for grafting during
the same day. However, there is a need
of storage of scion for long
transportation. The scion wood must
remain completely dormant, moist and
healthy throughout storage. In case of
large quantity of scion, all scions must
be cut to a uniform length, keep their
basal ends together, and tie them in
bundles of known quantity (50 scions
per bundle). Bundles of scion sticks may
be stored in bins of moist sawdust in
cold storages or under shade. However,
for smaller quantities, scion sticks can
be bundled, wrapped in moist
newspaper, particularly the base and
kept in plastic bags and stored at low
temperature under shade. Label the
bundles, recording the cultivar, date of
harvest, and location of the stick plant.
Regular check is required to avoid
disease infestation. The cut ends may
also be dipped in wax prior to storage to
reduce desiccation. The scion sticks
should never be stored along with fruits
or vegetables because stored fruits and
vegetables release ethylene gas.
Exposure of Scion sticks to even very
low levels of ethylene may cause woody
plant buds to abort, kill making the
scions useless.
10. Selection of rootstock
Rootstocks are used in orchards
for various advantages, especially when
site conditions necessitate. The various
characteristics of rootstocks that should
be considered when making a selection:
1) resistant to present and
potential soil pests;
2) suitable for the soil’s texture,
depth, and fertility;
3) compatible with soil
chemistry (pH, salinity, lime content);
4) favored for the anticipated
soil water availability, drainage, and
irrigation practice;
5) appropriate for the orchard
design and layout; and
6) compatible with scion of high
yielding and quality fruits
Rootstocks exert tremendous
influence on growth of scions. Selection
of rootstocks is considered to have
influence on the graftage success and
proper formation of the union.
Therefore, in sohiong, a seedling of one
year old and pencil thickness (0.5-1.0
cm) should be selected for grafting
purpose. The selected rootstocks must
be healthy and free from diseases.
11. Grating time
The best time of grafting is
second week September to second week
of October, when stock and scion are in
complete dormant condition.
12. Grafting technique
The selected rootstock and scion
must be of equal diameter. There are
two methods of grafting adopted
successfully in sohiong, viz., Tongue
grafting and Wedge grafting. The
following are the steps necessary for
tongue grafting in sohiong.
12.1. Preparation of stock
12.1.1. First cut: A smooth diagonal
slanting cut of 4 -5 cm long is made on
Indian Farmer 2(8): 639-647; August-2015
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the rootstock at about 15-20 cm above
the ground level. The first cut with a
single, smooth cut with no waves or
whittling is advised. A good quality,
very sharp knife is essential.
12.1.2. Second cut: Another downward
cut is given starting approximately
2/3rd from the top of the slanting cut
and about 2 cm in length. It begins
vertically, then gradually becomes
nearly parallel to the first cut surface.
This form a ‘tongue’ like structure on
the stock. Remove any lateral branches
on the stub that might crowd the graft
as it begins to grow.
12.2. Preparation of scion
Identical and complementary
cuts are made in the lower side (base)
of the scion exactly matching the cut
given on the rootstock. When the two
pieces are laid face to face the joined
unit should look straight and identical.
Care should be taken to avoid touching
the cut surfaces. Avoid splitting the
wood and do not loosen the bark.
12.3. Insertion of the scion
After the cuts are made on both
parts, open the cuts slightly. Push the
scion into the stock together tightly
enough in such a way that the cut
surfaces match as closely as possible.
The scion should be preferably the same
diameter as the stock and cambial area,
i.e. area just beneath the bark of both
pieces must be aligned for a union to
develop. However, if the scion and the
stock are not of same size, i.e., scion is
smaller, then it is important that the
scion be placed over to one side of the
rootstock to match the cambiums on
one side only, rather than in the center,
so that the vascular cambia match up.
The lower tip of the scion should not
hang over the stock.
In grafting, the vascular
cambium of the scion must be aligned
with the vascular cambium of rootstock.
In woody plants such as sohiong the
cambium is a very thin like ribbon, of
actively dividing cells located
immediately beneath the bark. The
cambium produces conductive tissue
for the actively growing plant. This
vascular cambium initiates callus tissue
at the graft and bud unions. In addition,
they are also known to stimulating
tissue growth on the basal ends of
vegetative cuttings before they have
initiates rooting.
12.4. Wrapping
The union portion should be
wrapped and tied properly with the
150-gauge polythene strip to firmly
secure the grafts, exclude air and
prevent drying. Wrapping should be
overlapping between the strips. It
should be started from lower portion of
graftage and continues upward to avoid
entry of water during irrigation or rainy
days. Never allow the binding material
to girdle the stem.
13. Tag the scions
It is important to put tags on the
scions to avoid confusion among
various genotypes of sohiong fruits.
14. After graft
Following grafting, the grafted
plants must be kept under shade and
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avoid drying in the sunlight for better
success of the grafts.
15. Graft take
About 80% graft success can be
achieved through tongue grafting.
16. Aftercare
After care is very important to
ensure high successful of graft. During
the healing time, generally graft union is
healed first and then they will start to
grow visibly. This period of complete
healing and graft union formation may
take for 30-45 days after grafting
depending on the type of graft and the
weather. If scion buds start to open, it is
not guaranteed that the graft is
successful. It is not uncommon for buds
to sprout to silver tip and even green tip
but then die. For instance, even pruned
and detached branches will often have
buds sprout and open up from the
reserve energy that is stored in them.
Once the wood has produced about a
half inch (1.25 cm) of new growth it is
safe to assume the graft will live.
16.1. Irrigation
Initially, watering regularly with
fine mist to avoid any dislodging and
loosening the graft union. Soil must be
just moist but neither too wet and not
too dry. During summer when the
sunlight is very high, keep the potted
grafted trees in the semi shade,
otherwise sunlight is beneficial for the
growth of any tree.
16.2. Sprout removal
Periodically, it has to be checked
for any sprout emerge or leaves
growing below the graft union. Any
growth/ or buds in the rootstock must
be rubbed off that may have pushed
leaves. Because if allow growth in the
rootstock, the sap will be directed
directly into this growth and the scion
would dry and no callus formation.
16.3. Remove wrapping strip
Once the graft union are
successfully formed, polythene strip are
removed after 2-3 months of grafting to
prevent strangling and girdling the graft
by becoming too tight. The strip can be
removed by carefully unwrap the tape
or simply cut through the strip
lengthwise with the help of sharp
knife/blade to release the pressure and
leave the severed tape on the branch.
16.4. Transplanting to field
Healthy plants are ready for
planting within nine months after graft
success.
16.5. Comparison performance of
grafted and seedling plants
Plants of sohiong obtained
through tongue grafting were found to
give higher growth characters over
seedling plants (Table 1). All characters
were recorded maximum in grafted
plants including stem diameter (17.47
mm), number of branch (6.72), plant
spread in E-W (49.81 cm) and N-S
(42.86 cm) with the exception of plant
height were maximum was recorded in
seedling plant (120.56 cm).
Indian Farmer 2(8): 639-647; August-2015
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Table 1 Comparison of grafted and seedling plant of sohiong (one years old)
Plant Types
Plant
height
(cm)
Stem
diameter
(mm)
Scion
diameter
(mm)
Number
of
branch
Plant canopy spread
(cm)
East-
West
North-
South
Tongue
grafted plant
113.14
17.47
14.17
6.72
49.81
42.86
Seedling
plant
120.56
14.27
-
3.21
28.68
28.02
REFERENCES
Deka, B.C. and Rymbai, H. 2014. Status
of underutilized fruit crops in
Northeast India. In: Proceeding of
national Seminar on ‘Strategies for
conservation, improvement and
utilization of underutilized fruits’
organized by Central Hortiucltural
Experiment Station and Society for
Promotion of Horticulture,
Banalore, India on 4- 5th December,
2014. (In Press).
Patel, R. K., Deka, Bidyut C. and
Deshmukh, N, A. 2011. Grafting in
Sohiong: A novel multiplication
technique. Published by the
Director, ICAR Research Complex
for NEH Region, Umiam
(Meghalaya).
Rymbai, H. Patel, R.K., Deshmukh, N.A.,
Jha, A.K., Patel, R.S. and War, G.F.
2014. Nutrients variability in
Sohiong (Prunus nepalensis L.)
fruit. Biotech Article:
http://www.biotecharticles.com/
Agriculture-Article/Nutrients-
Variability-in-Sohiong-Prunus-
Nepalensis-L-Fruit-3230.html.
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