Vegetable tube grafting technology is highly efficient
Grafted vegetable cultivation has the advantages of improving the ability of vegetable plants to resist soil-borne diseases, overcoming continuous cropping obstacles in vegetables, enhancing the stress resistance (cold, drought, high temperature) of vegetable plants, extending the harvest period, increasing yield, and reducing pesticide use. Therefore, grafted vegetable cultivation has been promoted and applied in various regions, with significant economic benefits. However, the efficiency of vegetable grafting has always been relatively low. For example, with the grafting clip cleft grafting technique for eggplant, each person can graft about 500 plants per day, which is low in grafting efficiency and high in grafting labor cost. Using special grafting tubes for grafting can greatly improve efficiency.
The special grafting tube is colorless and transparent, non-toxic and odorless, and has a certain degree of elasticity. The inner diameter of the tube comes in 4 specifications, namely 2.5 mm, 2.8 mm, 3 mm and 3.5 mm, suitable for grafting seedlings of different sizes. When grafting, cut the tube into small sections 0.8-1.2 cm long.
The advantage of tube grafting technology is that it significantly improves grafting efficiency, with each person grafting more than 1000 plants per day, doubling grafting efficiency; at the same time, after grafting there is no need to remove the tube, as it breaks open on its own as the plant grows, simplifying the grafting operation procedure, with a grafting survival rate of over 95%, and the production cost per grafted seedling reduced by 50%.
Now taking eggplant and tomato as examples to introduce the key technical points: due to climate differences among regions, sowing date trials are needed to determine the suitable sowing date. Generally, eggplant rootstock is sown 5-6 days earlier than the scion, and tomato rootstock is sown 2-3 days earlier than the scion. Grafting begins when the eggplant rootstock and scion have 5 true leaves, and when the tomato has 2-4 true leaves.
When grafting, use a blade to cut off the stem tip of the rootstock at an angle of 30°-45°, keeping 1 true leaf, and select a tube with a suitable inner diameter to place over the rootstock. Use a blade to cut off the stem tip of the scion at an angle of 20°-45°, keeping 2 leaves and 1 growing point. Insert the cut stem tip of the scion into the tube on the rootstock, ensuring that the cut surfaces of the rootstock and scion fit closely together.
After grafting, shade and keep the grafted seedlings moist, with the temperature controlled at 20°C-25°C. Check the temperature and humidity inside the grafted seedling shed every day, and after 5-7 days begin gradually opening them to light. After the grafted plants survive, carry out routine management as for conventional grafted seedlings.
Precautions: Pay attention to adjusting the sowing dates and growth conditions of the rootstock variety and scion variety so that the stem thickness of the rootstock and scion seedlings is consistent, which is beneficial for tube grafting. This technology is suitable for eggplant and tomato production areas across the country.
Guangping County Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau Zhao Yayun