The propagation of plant materials for productive purposes is one of the ecological practices aimed at safeguarding the species over time, however, then different conventional methods have been created to propagate species through sophisticated techniques, in this post I will describe the process of grafting in citrus.
▶ The most widely used method in the world to propagate citrus is grafting; an asexual (vegetative) method, which offers comparative advantages over the sexual method, by means of seeds.
▶ Credits: Fast. – [Image of Public Domain]
Grafting is nothing more than the art of joining vegetative parts of different plants, generally of the same species, in such a way that they unite and continue their growth as a single plant. The part that will constitute the crown is called graft and the lower part is called rootstock.
To obtain citrus material in optimal conditions for planting, the seeds of the selected rootstock must be germinated in rooting beds for 3 months.
Once the seedlings reach a size of 15 centimeters, they are transplanted into bags with a capacity of 5 kilos of substrate, where after 4 months of agronomic management such as fertilization, pest, disease and weed control, pruning, and irrigation.
Among other tasks, they reach an optimal development for grafting. Once the tree is grafted, it takes about 4 months to be ready to be planted in the final site..
NOTE: Reference material.