Vegetative Propagation of Papaya ( Carica papaya L.) Through Grafting

In papaya orchards raised through seedlings, large variation in sex forms is a major hindrance to its cultivation on a commercial scale. Similarly, in papaya breeding, if a desirable trait is to be fixed in future generations, it is essential to multiply the plants by asexual means for evaluation on a large scale as sexual propagation has several drawbacks. Limited studies have been conducted on vegetative propagation in papaya under the tropical climate of India. Hence, the present study was initiated to standardize vegetative propagation through grafting under separate experiments. A combination of growth hormones and different aged seedlings was used to induce lateral shoots on the mother plants to utilize them as scions for grafting. Spraying BA @ 100 ppm + GA3 @ 250 ppm on 5–6 month-old mother plants could produce more graftable size shoots. Among different methods, softwood wedge grafting recorded maximum success followed by cleft grafting. Field evaluation of grafted and seedling plants revealed that the former were dwarfs and sturdy, induced early flowering at a lower heights and came to harvest earlier than the seedlings. Though physical fruit parameters showed a significant difference between grafted and seedling plants, no difference was recorded for fruit quality parameters.