Winter Grafts as Alternative Methods to T-Budding in Pear (Pyrus communis L.) Propagation

Abstract

Traditionally, labour intensive, costly and lengthy method of t-budding is used to propagate pears (Pyrus communis L.).
To assess whether winter grafts could be used as alternative methods and whether these methods save time in pear propagation,
several winter grafting techniques were performed in-door and the success rates of t-budding were compared with that of
winter grafts such as splice graft, whip tongue graft and hanging graft. ‘Deveci’ and ‘Santa Maria’ cultivars used as scion and
‘Quince A’ was used as rootstock in all grafting experiments. The highest frequencies of grafting successes (100% and 98%)
were obtained from t-budding and all winter grafting techniques gave lower success rates as compared to summer grafts.
Summer grafts stimulated plant height and diameter more than winter grafts did. However the overall survival rates of winter
grafts were higher than the early summer t-budding. Winter propagation methods are not effective for having taller and ticker
plants, but they still yielded comparable grafting successes. Therefore, nursery plants produced by winter grafts still may be
useful in establishing new plantation of pears due to their higher root/shoot ratio than the summer grafts.