Pruning involves removing unproductive plant parts to divert energy into fruit production. It improves fruit quality by increasing light penetration. Grafting joins plant parts to transfer beneficial traits like disease resistance. It is commonly used in cucurbits and solanaceous crops. Staking supports plants and keeps fruits off the ground to reduce disease and facilitate harvesting. Recent innovations include micrografting to eliminate viruses and grafting robots to automate the process.

1. PUNJAB AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY
LUDHIANA
Production Technology of Summer Season
Vegetable Crops
(Veg 502)
Pruning , Grafting and Staking in
Summer Season Vegetable Crops
Anusha KR
L -2019-H-205-M
MSc 1st yr.
Vegetable
Science

2. PRUNING

4. Introduction
 Pruning is the removal of unproductive plant
parts.
 These are typically shoots or branches, but
sometimes buds, flowers, fruit or roots are
removed as well.
 This facilitates the growth of the remaining
parts and thereby ensuring high yield. Pruning
is the removal of plant parts.

5. Objective of pruning
 To remove the non-productive parts in order
to divert the energy into those parts that is
capable of bearing fruits.
 Maintain the proper proportion of root: shoot
ratio.
 Better quality of fruits by better light
penetration.
 Leaf pruning reduces disease pressure,
accelerate fruit ripening and makes
harvesting easier (Heuvelink et al., 2005).

6. Principles of Pruning:
 Pruning should be completed well in advance
of flowering season.
 Apply Bordeaux paste after pruning to avoid
incidence of diseases.
 Diseased, damaged and insect infested
shoots should be removed.
 Avoid injury to plant while pruning.

7. Response of pruning on vegetable
crops
 McGraw et al., (2007) indicated that pruning
small basal branches helps to maintain the
balance between vegetative and reproductive
biomass in tomato.
 Kabir (2010) found that pruning delayed
fruiting in okra and usually gave more larger
and desirable percentage of good quality
fruits. Hence pruning facilitates opening of
leaves to sunlight and partitioning of
assimilates was high in pruned plants.

8.  Palada and Chang (2003) found that the
removal of the lateral shoots had a positive
effect on the total yield of bitter gourd.
 Gautier et al., (2001) found that pruning of
tomato increased the mean dry mass of stems
and petioles (up to 43 per cent) and lamina (up
to 22 per cent) along with an increase in mean
dry mass of fruit (up to 42 per cent).

9. GRAFTING

10. Introduction
 Grafting is an art of joining together two plant
parts such as different species of same genera
(a rootstock and a scion) by means of tissue
regeneration, in which the resulting
combination of plant parts achieves physical
reunion and grow as a single plant (Janick,
1986)

11. Why grafting ?
 Disease tolerance
 Low temperature tolerance
 High temperature tolerance
 Salt tolerance
 Flood tolerance
 Improving quality traits
 Higher yield

12. Research studies
 Grafting can transfer resistance against the
carmine spider mite (Tetranychus
cinnabarinus) from Lagenaria rootstocks to
Cucurbita scions (Edelstein et al., 2000).
 Fusarium was controlled by grafting in melon
(Cohen et al., 2002)
 Leoni et al. (1990) reported an increase of
310% in the yield of melon grafted on RS841.
In other melon hybrids the increase was only
50-60%.

13. Basic prerequisites
 Rootstock
 Scion
 Compatibility
 Grafting Aids
 Grafting / healing chamber
 Acclimatization chamber

14. Steps
 Choose a scion and a rootstock
 Construct a healing chamber
 Sowing the seed
 Choose the best time to graft
 Make the grafts
 Move the grafts to the healing chamber
 Acclimate the grafts to the normal conditions

15. Best time to graft
 When seedlings are in 2-4 true leaf stage
 Stems are 1.5-2mm
 Early morning or at evening , when water
stress is low.
 Should be done in indoors under shade

16. Grafting tools
Secateurs Tape Clips

17. METHODS OF
VEGETABLE
GRAFTING

18. Hole insertion/top insertion
grafting
 Most popular in
cucurbits.
 When scion and
rootstock have
hollow hypocotyls,
this method is
preferred (Hang et
al 2005).

19. One cotyledon/splice grafting
 Suitable for mass
production.
 It is applicable to
most of the
vegetables.
 Scion stem size
should be very
similar to rootstock
size.

20. Tongue /Approach grafting
 Most widely used by
farmers and small
industries.
 Seedlings have
uniform growth rate.
 Not suitable for
rootstocks with
hollow hypocotyls.

21. Tube grafting
 It is similar to slant grafting except that in
this method, rootstock and scion are held
with an elastic tube instead of clips.
 It is more popular in tomato and brinjal.

22. Cleft grafting
 It is simple and easy method, suitable for plants
having wide hypocotyls.
 Can be practiced in all vegetables.

23. Pomato
 Pomato is a result of
grafting of tomato on
potato.
 We can reap
tomatoes from the
top of the plant and
potatoes from the
soil.

24. RECENT INNOVATIONS
OF VEGETABLE
GRAFTING

25. Micro-grafting
 In vitro grafting using very small or micro
explants (< 1/1000th mm3) from meristematic
tissues to eliminate the viruses from infected
plants.
 Micro grafting has been used in herbaceous
plants to evaluate the physiology of grafting
and determine the chemical basis of cell to cell
contacts.
 This method provides rapid propagation of
virus free plants although, it is expensive.

26. Grafting Robots
 A full automation model developed in the
Netherlands can graft 1,000 tomato or
eggplant seedlings per hour and has more
functions such as automatically selecting
matching rootstock and scion seedlings, which
is a crucial process to increase the success
rate.
 According to Kobayashi (Kobayashi et al.), the
first commercial model of a grafting robot
(GR800 series; Iseki & Co. Ltd., Matsuyama,
Japan) became available for cucurbits in 1993

28. Rootstocks and Methods of
grafting vegetable crops

29. Recommended rootstocks by
World Vegetable Centre

30. Demerits of grafting
 High cost.
 More labour requirement.
 Special care is required.

31. STAKING

33. Introduction
 The main reason for staking and supporting is
to keep the plants off the ground.
 This reduces losses from fruit rots when fruit
are not shaded by foliage.
 Determinate varieties are not heavily pruned,
regardless of support system, because most of
the fruit produced on the branches

34. Merits
 Keeps the fruits above the ground
 It helps in producing healthy fruits.
 Clean, firm and large sized fruits are obtained.
 Less chances from incidence of pests.
 Facilitates spraying and dusting of
pesticides/fungicides.
 Increases the plant stand per unit area.
 Facilitates rapid picking and collection of fruits.
 Better utilization of sunlight and air.

35. Demerits
 It adds more cost of cultivation.
 There is a damage of spreading virus infection
unless necessary precaution are taken.

36. THANK YOU