Detailed Explanation of the Technique of Taking Multiple Shoots from a Single Seedling for Grafting Eggplant
In autumn, temperatures are high, the weather is dry, and the temperature difference between day and night is large. Eggplant suffers severe flower and fruit drop, growth and development are hindered, and stiff fruits and deformed fruits are prone to appear, resulting in low yield and poor quality. Management must be strengthened to ensure high yield and good quality and to obtain a good harvest. Strengthen water management. In autumn, eggplant plants should be watered every morning and evening...
Grafting cultivation of eggplant has become the most important disease-resistant and yield-increasing cultivation method in current protected eggplant production. When raising grafted eggplant seedlings. The technique of taking scions of one seedling and one shoot is generally used. This method has high seed costs and high production costs. Based on the principle of apical dominance in plant growth, and combined with the strong lateral bud sprouting ability of eggplant seedlings, three techniques for taking multiple shoots from a single seedling as scions have been summarized:The first method is to use lateral buds from robust mature plants of the previous crop to take scions. One plant can provide ten to several dozen lateral buds. This method can save the cost of scion seeds, but it has the following disadvantages: first, mother plants need to be reserved, making it difficult to thoroughly disinfect the entire greenhouse; second, the lateral buds may carry viruses or other pathogens, causing grafted seedlings to develop disease early and severely, affecting yield; third, because the scions are inconsistent in size, the surviving grafted seedlings may vary in height, increasing the difficulty of field management and increasing the workload of pruning and removing side shoots.
The second method is the stem-segment scion method. The scions and rootstocks can be raised at the same time, and the scions can also be raised earlier. Because scion seedlings grow faster than rootstock seedlings, they can be cut into segments separately according to the height and leaf number of the scion seedlings, with each segment retaining 1 to 2 true leaves. Generally, 1 scion plant can be cut into 2 to 3 stem segments, and the terminal bud and the cut stem segments are used directly as scions. After the stem-segment grafts survive, because the axillary scions of the stem-segment scions and the seedlings used as stem-segment scions grow at inconsistent rates, they should be planted in separate zones and managed separately, and after the grafted seedlings have grown to a uniform height, they can then be managed uniformly. This method is mainly suitable for factory seedling production.
The third method is the multi-lateral-bud scion method. The scions and rootstocks can be raised at the same time, and the scions can also be raised earlier. According to the required number of collected scions, an appropriate leaf age stage is selected to remove the terminal bud. Local vegetable growers in Shouguang or seedling factories generally remove the terminal bud when the 3rd to 4th true leaf of the scion shows a heart leaf. The lateral buds then grow rapidly. When the lateral buds grow to 4 to 5 leaves, a blade is used to remove the lateral buds as scions for grafting. Generally, 1 scion plant can provide 2 to 3 lateral buds. Grafting should be carried out at an appropriate time according to the principle of matching the stem thickness of the rootstock and scion. This method is convenient for vegetable growers and is even more suitable for factory seedling production. In factory seedling production, when the scion has 4 to 5 true leaves, the terminal bud can be taken to graft one batch first, and when the lateral buds grow to 4 to 5 leaves, another batch can be grafted, implementing a staged grafting method, which can effectively reduce seedling production costs.