MSc

Edible fruits of the genus Annona are collectively known as Annonaceous fruits.
In India, these fruits were mainly consumed by the lower classes, but now realising the
nutritional benefits and medicinal value of these fruits in controlling lifestyle diseases and
lethal ailments like cancer, the demand for these fruits are on the increase. These fruits
are mainly propagated through seeds and therefore, exhibit great genetic variability with
regard to its growth, yield and quality, with an unpredictable pre-bearing age. So in order
to propagate an identified superior type maintaining their true to type character vegetative
propagation techniques have to be standardized. There is also a lot of scope for taking up
commercial cultivation of Annona spp. like A. squamosa L. (Custard apple or Sitaphal),
A. reticulata L. (Bullock’s heart or Ramphal) and A. muricata L. (Soursop) which are
common in our homesteads. But, the main factor limiting the commercial cultivation of
these crops is the lack of good quality planting material. So the present study entitiled “
Inter and intra specific grafting and budding in Annona spp.”was carried out in the
college orchard attached to the Department of Fruit Science, College of Agriculture,
Vellanikkara during 2021-2022.
The research programme was conducted as two experiments. First experiment
was identification of rootstock and scion combinations for softwood grafting in Annona
spp. Three selected species of genus Annona namely Annona squamosa L., Annona
reticulata L. and Annona muricata L. were grafted in all possible cross combinations (as
rootstock and scion) during three different seasons (February- March using four months
old rootstock, May- June using six month old rootstock and October- November using
one year old rootstock). Experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design with
nine treatments replicated thrice with twenty one plants per replication. Treatments
included T1 (A. squamosa on A.squamosa), T2 (A. squamosa on A. reticulata), T3 (A.
squamosa on A. muricata), T4 (A. reticulata on A. squamosa), T5 (A. reticulata on A.
reticulata), T6 (A. reticulata on A. muricata), T7 (A. muricata on A. squamosa), T8 (A.
muricata on A. reticulata) and T9 (A. muricata on A. muricata). Observations on
vegetative characters were noted at 15 days interval for three months and root characters
at the end of third month after grafting.
From the results it was found that treatment T4 (A. reticulata on A. squamosa)
took only minimum number of days (9.55 days) to sprout when grafted during FebruaryMarch, whereas maximum survival percentage was observed for the treatment T9 (A.
muricata on A. muricata) (100%) followed by T1 (A. squamosa on A. squamosa)
(90.46%) and T6 (A. reticulata on A. muricata) (80.90%) grafted during the same period.
Plants grafted during May-June were observed with very low survival percentage for all
the nine treatments. For grafting carried out during October-November, T6 (A. reticulata
on A. muricata) (80.95%) and T1 (A. squamosa on A. squamosa) (76.18%) exhibited
better survival rates. With regard to number of leaves and branches produced T1 (A.
squamosa on A. squamosa), T6 (A. reticulata on A. muricata) and T9 (A. muricata on A.
muricata) were found to be superior irrespective of season of grafting or age of rootstock
used. Treatment T9 (A. muricata on A. muricata) was observed to possess maximum
shoot length (37.12 cm) and treatment T1 (A. squamosa on A. squamosa) produced
maximum number of roots, whereas average length of root was maximum for treatment
T6 (A. reticulata on A. muricata) when grafted during February-March.
Second experiment was conducted to identify the best rootstock and scion
combinations for patch budding in Annona spp. Treatments from T1-T9 were same as that
of experiment 1 budded in all possible cross combinations of three species of Annona
namely A. squamosa L., A. reticulata L. and A. muricata L. Observations on vegetative
characters were recorded at 15 days interval for three months. Root characters were
recorded at the end of three months after budding.
The results of this experiment indicated that treatment T3 (A. squamosa on A.
muricata), T5 (A. reticulata on A. reticulata) and T6 (A. reticulata on A. muricata) took
an average count between 29-36 days for initial sprouting. Plants budded during MayJune sprouted earlier, whereas highest survival percentage was observed for treatments
T6 (A. reticulata on A. muricata) (100%) budded during February-March. Branching did
not exhibit any significant difference in any of the treatments. Treatment T6 (A. reticulata
on A. muricata) produced maximum number of leaves during all the three seasons.
Treatments T6 (A. reticulata on A. muricata) (24.75 cm) and T9 (A. muricata on A.
muricata) (20.01 cm) budded during October-November were found to be superior with
respect to shoot length. Treatment T5 (A. reticulata on A. reticulata) budded during
February-March produced maximum number of roots, whereas T3 (A. squamosa on A.
muricata) (13.75 cm) and T9 (A. muricata on A. muricata) (13.05 cm) budded during the
same period recorded maximum length of root.
In the present study, treatments T1 (A. squamosa on A. squamosa), T6 (A.
reticulata on A. muricata) and T9 (A. muricata on A. muricata) were found to perform
better with regard to all the characters under study. The period February-March followed
by October-November were identified as the ideal season for grafting and budding in
Annona spp. Grafted plants were found to perform better compared to budded plants in
terms of early initial sprouting and survival rate.