Graft- take success in walnut under controlled conditions of Kashmir Valley

The success in propagation is known to be influenced by the method, time and environment conditions to which the plants are subjected to grow before and after propagation. So there is urgent need to standardize the environment and time for clonal multiplication of walnut in order to ensure supply of quality plant material for expansion of area, there by facilitating manifold increase in production and productivity of superior nuts and meeting the international standards of quality characters of nut and kernel. Since, no systematic work has been carried out to see the combined influence of the rootstock planting time, scion type and time of grafting. Therefore, the present investigation entitled “Graft take success in walnut under controlled conditions of Kashmir valley” was carried out in the Experimental Farm, of Division of Fruit Science, SKUAST-K- Shalimar during the years 2017 and 2018. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications having 15 plants per replication. The results obtained indicated that initial graft success (75.28%), leaf area (350.02cm²), final plant height (132.98cm) and final graft success (69.05%) were significantly better when rootstocks were planted during 2^nd fortnight of November as compared to other timings of rootstock planting. Among two different scions viz., (Middle portion of current season growth with 3-5buds) and (Current season growth (35buds) with small piece of 2-year old wood), initial graft success (63.66%), leaf area (309.95 cm²), final plant height (119.78cm) and final graft success (58.00%) were observed better with scion type having middle portion of current season growth with 3-5 buds. Time of grafting significantly influenced all the recorded parameters, and best results were obtained with grafting performed during 3^rd week of February as compared to 1^st week of March. These observations provided strong dta-base evidence for suitable time of grafting in walnut under Kashmir valley.