Effect of time and growing condition on success of softwood grafting in mango

The experiment was carried out at Regional Horticultural Research Station, ASPEE College of Horticulture, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari during June 2017 to February 2020. The treatment combinations involving six grafting months (April, June, August, October, December and February) and two growing conditions (open and polyhouse). The experiment was laid out in a Completely Randomized Design with factorial concept and repeated thrice. The study of three years indicated that softwood grafting done in June month recorded minimum days to leaf emergence (15 days), maximum success of graft at 30 days (67.50%) and survival percentage at 120 days (53.33%). Maximum incremental length (3.02, 4.07, 5.17 and 7.43 cm), incremental girth (6.75, 7.39, 8.05 and 8.82 mm) and number of leaves per graft (10.75, 15.09, 18.20 and 22.74) were observed at 30, 60, 90 and 120 DAG, respectively in same grafting month. Among growing conditions, the grafts kept under poly house condition took minimum days (15.74) for leaf emergence, gave maximum success of graft at 30 days (45.09 %) and survival percentage at 120 days (31.85 %). Maximum incremental length (2.37, 3.72, 4.65 and 6.89 cm) and incremental girth of graft (6.55, 7.22, 7.90 and 8.56 mm) were noted in polyhouse condition at 30, 60, 90 and 120 days after grafting, respectively. While, maximum number of leaf per graft (12.95, 16.53 and 20.92) was noted in same treatment at 60, 90 and 120 days after grafting, respectively. In case of combination effect, the grafting done during June and kept under poly house conditions gave significantly maximum percentage success of graft at 30 DAG (74.44 %), percentage survival of graft (64.44 %) at 120 DAG and maximum incremental length (4.21, 5.55 and 8.07) at 60, 90 and 120 days after grafting, respectively.