Detailed Guide to Carambola Grafting Techniques, Master All Methods and Steps
Carambola is a fruit native to China and is often exported around the world. Because its appearance resembles a five-pointed star, it is also known abroad as star fruit. It helps with digestion and treating skin diseases, and also has excellent tonic and health benefits. When planting, many fruit growers often use grafting methods to cultivate plants in order to improve disease resistance and increase yields, thereby increasing profits. Below, Qinnong Web brings you the grafting methods for carambola. Let's take a look together.
1. Selecting the Rootstock
To graft good saplings, there must be certain standards for selecting the rootstock. The rootstock seedling must be at least 30cm tall and have a stem diameter of at least 0.7cm. In addition, when cultivating rootstock seedlings for grafting, management must be strengthened, especially regarding water and fertilizer, loosening soil and weeding, pests and diseases, and pruning. Through these processes, the rootstock seedlings grow neatly and uniformly and are first-class rootstock seedlings.
2. Selecting the Scion
Just like rootstock selection, the scion also has strict selection standards. It should be cut from mother plants with good variety characteristics, strong growth, high and stable yield, and strong resistance to pests and diseases. The scion branch cut should also be required to be current-year or one-year-old, a branch about 0.5cm thick in a sunny part of the canopy, cut to about 30-50cm, and the branch should carry fresh green leaves and buds, which is conducive to successful grafting. After cutting, promptly remove the compound leaves and tender shoots, then cut the long branch into two nodes, wrap it well with a damp towel, and place it in a cool place. It is best to graft within 48 hours, otherwise the grafting will fail.
3. Grafting Time
Carambola is a tropical and subtropical fruit and prefers a mild climate environment. Apart from growing extremely slowly between winter and spring grafting, it keeps growing at other times, so the grafting period is very long, and grafting can be done from late spring to late autumn. Experiments have shown that in the extremely high-temperature environment of the south, the survival rate is highest when grafting in March-April, while during May-October the survival rate is between 70-80%. When grafting, try to avoid sunny weather. The morning of rainy and clear weather is best, while grafting at high noon temperatures results in an extremely low survival rate.
4. Grafting Methods
There are many grafting methods for carambola, but the most commonly used is single-bud cut grafting. First prepare the tools used for grafting, then cut off the rootstock seedling at 25cm above the ground, and then begin cutting the scion. The specific method is to face the base of the scion outward, press it closely with the left index finger, cut a 40-50 degree slant about 1-2cm below the bud, then remove the epidermis on the back side of the cut surface, and place the cut scion in a bud dish filled with clean water. After that, the rootstock must be cut. At the smooth part of the rootstock after cutting, cut vertically downward with a knife to make a 40-50 degree cut opening the same as the scion, then join the scion tightly to the cut opening, and wrap it tightly with plastic film. In this way, the grafting is complete. After grafting, check promptly, and promptly re-graft any that fail. When the successful graft begins to sprout, promptly pierce the film to let the buds extend and grow.
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