Grafting and budding are horticultural techniques used to join parts from two or more plants so that they appear to grow as a single plant. In grafting, the upper part (scion) of one plant grows on the root system (rootstock) of another plant. In the budding process, a bud is taken from one plant and grown on another.
Citrus fruit grafting is used all over the world
Some methods of grafting:
(1) simple splice graft, showing cut surfaces of stock and scion and the cut surfaces joined and bound; (2) tongued graft; (3) whip graft; (4) cleft graft; (5) side cleft graft.
Advantages of grafting:
Grafting is the fastest way of growing popular, desirable varieties of fruiting trees & flowering shrubs on a large scale.
Many commercially valuable plants are difficult to grow by other propagation methods like cutting & layering, but they respond well to grafting.
Scions are highly precious varieties, but the usually have poor rooting system, less vigor & weak defence against pathogens.
All these flaws can be overcome by grafting them on the stock, which is usually a hardy, wild relative of a scion.
Grafting is a way of cloning a scion variety to maintain the consistency of characters such as size, color, flavours, etc.
With gardener’s curiosity, multiple varieties of different scions can be grafted on single stock plant; trees can be given ornamental shapes,
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