Grafting

Am doing some trial on fruit trees and in order to shorten the incubation time to fruiting, I have to look into grafting. Grafting can shortens the fruiting time to about 3 1/2 years as it takes on the traits of the mother tree (scion) which is already fruiting. Am doing some trials on grafting Avocado and Jack fruit seedling as these are seedling that I have germinated at the moment. I do not have any grafting experience and I started off just with some basic research on the internet.

Bought some tools such as pruning scissors ($18.00), grafting knife ($4.50) and some grafting tapes ($16.00)

Started my first grafting on a Jack fruit seedling back in August. Then tried grafting on rubber and avocado seedlings. These were down just to get some feel on grafting. I was figuring that it should not be too difficult as I see plenty people doing it when I bought my rubber seedlings rom Lembaga Getah nursery. There were lots of doubts especially when I snip off the top of the rootstock. Found it rather difficult as things are always not as ideal like the diagrams / instruction. My hands were also to 'hard' to do this fragile grafting, and my eye sight is also not sharp. Grafting was progressing very slowly. There were also my share of cuts, on my hands skin breaking due to pulling (tension) of the grafting tape. At night I feel muscle pain on my arms & palms.

 Finally manged about 20 grafting. Left these for about 3 weeks as I was away from my farm, on vacation. Come back and none was successful. Was thinking, well it is the first time.

 Did a second batch of about 60 seedlings on September, then went on vacation. Came back and was very happy as the grafted part is still alive. Thinking that it did not dried up after 2 weeks, it must then be growing. Estimated that I had a 65% successful rate, real good as it was only my second attempt.

 

  I released the grafting tape, thinking that it shall grow faster / better without it. It was a big mistake, as once release, lots of the graft come loose and as they started to dry up and wrinkle over a period of just a couple of days. I then tied back some of the grafts, but was already too late.











Ended up with lots of spoiled seedlings. As my grafting position isn't too low, I guess I can still try again on these seedlings.



Did further reading and find that cleft and side/modified veneer grafting should be easier for Avocado. Also since the weather is getting hotter, I read that protecting the graft with a bag, shall increase the humidity and prevent dehydration, allowing the budding to grow fast.

My mobile grafting station is a very simple set up. A stump of wood as a stool, which can swivel (my buttock). Tools, drinking water, hand phone for music entertainment, a pail of water to keep the scion fresh. All of these can be shifted when the sun change direction. A normal day, I shift about 3 times.

This time, I waited and saw buds starting out. Yes, this is definitely a bud and it is growing. I shall not make the same mistake that I did by removing the grafting tape. I watched it for 2 days, and removed the plastic as I was thinking that too high a humidity, it may rot the bud. It was big mistake number 2. All of the buds start to dry off and died.Most probably due to sudden dehydration. Again another case of over anxious.

Again what a waste. Have to re-do again, and hopefully the rootstock can still be used. I cover back some of the Jackfruit graft and hope that it shall grow. Been very busy finishing off those that can be grafted (still not very sure when to graft). Shall be away again, attending MAHA 2012 on the 22nd December.

Looking back from where I started, my confidence and experience had grown. There were a couple of times, I though of giving up, but because of the difference in fruiting time, I force myself to continue. I estimate that I had put in about 150 grafts effort, mostly re-dos, some up to 4 times on a seedling. Also with the next couple of projects on fruits and rubber trees, all these need to be grafted. The next in line shall be Soursop and lime.

Hope that when I come back after MAHA 2012, I can see good results of my effort.

Stay tune for more updates, MAHA 2012.

Plantation Fire Aftermath.

Before the fire.

Here are the pictures showing before and after the fire. We had planned to clear this section as there is a water source, thinking that we could use this area to plant some fruit trees. This section was too steep and the bulldozer could not terrace it when we started clearing the land. Had already cleared a section manually, slashing with machete.

After the fire, we went back to check if the fire had totally extinguished. Another check was done about 4 weeks later, after my vacation. We find that the trunk is starting to rot, with insects inside the rotting bark. The bark had dried off and is peeling off the trunk.

The dying trunk. With the trunk damaged, I don't think we can do any tapping here. We then made a decision to cut off the trunk and leave a stump of about 2 feet. We hope that the roots had not die off and hope to have new growth at the base. Should this happen, then we may have a totally new trunk which we may tap.

 We then saw off the the trunk and did a stock take, total 150 trees affected.

Out of the 150 trees, there are 10 of them which I think are still healthy.

After much consideration, I made a decision to replant the affected trees, as the earlier we replant, then earlier it shall grow.

Bought a truck load of seedlings from TG Agriculture, a nursery producing rubber seedlings. Since the clone RRIM 3001, nicknamed Clone 1Malaysia is very readily available in Sabah yet, our friend suggested we take the clone PB 350, which is a clone good for latex & lumber. It's easily identified by the "round" shape leaves. Manage to load 208 plants into our truck.
Characteristic of PB 350
 Recommended for both latex and timber production. Potential latex production is up to 1,663kg per hectare per year. 1.16 cubic metre of wood volume per tree after 19 years of planting. Resistance to wind damage, pink disease (Corticium salmonicolor), Corynespora leaf disease is good, Oidium and Colletotrichum leaf disease are average. Average bark. Colour of latex white.
Would sure love to get some Clone RRIM3001 in the future as the  specification is even higher.







Since we have some extra, we started to plant those at the new terrace in Parcel 3 and Parcel 2. By the time we were about to plant at the affected area, to our delight, we found some stumps had actually rejuvenated. We then went about checking other stumps, and those that had no signs, we try puncturing the stump slight beneath the ground level. Latex is still available, a definite sign that the roots are still alive.
 Shall leave these and monitor in a month's time. Hopefully by then the new growth is mature enough. We then have to prune it to a single stem. Let's hope that these shall grow back in the shortest time possible.

As for the new seedlings, we shall transfer and plant these in Parcel 6.

Do stay tune for more updates.