Persian walnut (Juglans regia L.) grafting as influenced by different bench grafting methods and scion cultivars

Abstract: The study was conducted to determine the effects of different grafting methods and scion cultivars on walnut grafting under controlled conditions in March 2006. Four walnut cultivars ('Z53', 'Hartley', 'Pedro' and 'Serr') were grafted using three bench grafting methods (side stub, omega and whip tongue) onto dormant two years old Persian walnut seedlings as rootstock. The plants after grafting were covered with moist sawdust with relative humidity of 85- 90% and stored in a humid room at 26-28 ?C for 21 days. Based on the results, the highest grafting success was observed with omega (84.33%) followed by side stub (41.89%) and whip tongue (24.31%) grafting, respectively. Significant variations were also observed in graft take and scion growth. The differences among walnut cultivars (scion) on grafting take and scion growth were not significant. However, the scions x grafting methods interaction was significant and 'Hartley' variety grafted by omega method showed the highest graft take (88.44%) among all combinations. A significant positive correlation (R² = 0.84) was observed between the callus quality and graft takes in all grafting methods.