I just bought an "alphonso" mango tree and would like to graft some budwood from it to some saplings I have been growing. What would be the best techniqu to try? Thanks, Jack.

Mango is picky to graft -- if you do it right, you can get 95% or better, but if you don't do it right, expect next to zero %.

Different people use different methods throughout the world. But here is the method preferred by Florida nurseries, which gives excellent success:

1. June is the best month to graft. May and July will give substantially less success, and any other month may be disastrous.

2. Prepared budwood. About a week to 10 days before you want to graft, choose mature, dormant twigs on your scion-source tree, and clip off the leaves from the terminal 5-8 inches. Leave the petioles attached. Do NOT harvest the scions at this point. They should remain on the mother plant, looking like little porcupines with their petioles sticking out in all directions.

3. After a week, start gently nudging the petioles, daily. At first they'll just bend but stay attached. But there will come a day when they fall off at the slightest touch of your finger. On that day, collect the scions and graft them.

4. I like a veneer (=side veneer) graft about 3-4 inches long, with the terminal bud attached. If there is no terminal bud, that's ok; the tree just won't be quite as straight/vertical at first.

5. Whereas with most grafts, I make the scion cuts first, then hold the scion in my mouth while making the rootstock cuts, mango wood tastes bad and can be quite corrosive, and if you're allergic, can be life-threatening; so with mango, I always cut the rootstock first, then just work really quickly to get the scion cut and into place.

6. Wrap with polyethylene grafting tape, rather tightly. Cover all of the buds at first, except the terminal bud. Try to seal all the cut surfaces.

7. After 4 weeks, carefully unwrap and then re-wrap the scion, this time leaving the axillary (as well as terminal) buds open to the air, but putting the tape back on the internodes, to continue to provide support and protection. At that time, also make a notch 1/4 of the way through the rootstock trunk just above the scion, on the same side as the scion. Also clip out the terminal bud of the rootstock.

8. About every 2 weeks after that, cut a few inches of the rootstock top off, removing a few leaves each time. Of course, height and number of leaves on a rootstock will vary widely, but you are trying to encourage scion growth, but you don't want the rootstock to become leafless for a month to 6 weeks after the graft was first unwrapped.

9. About 10 weeks after grafting, 6 weeks after rewrapping, you should have a nice sturdy stem on your scion, with mature leaves. At that point it is safe to completely remove the rootstock top down to the graft, and to remove the grafting tape.

This method is obviously rather labor-intensive and "picky." However, nurseries (and individuals) who use it routinely get well over 95% success; those who don't generally settle for 65% with expert grafters, and far less if their grafters are less than expert.

I have a 1.8 MB Powerpoint presentation illustrating the process, which I'll be happy to send to anyone who'd like to have it. Just email me (mmanners@flsouthern.edu). I also have a 4.1 MB Powerpoint presentation on several methods of grafting and budding which I could also send, if your email account will take such a large attachment. It includes the slides from the mango Ppt, so you would not need both.

Malcolm Manners

It looks like I'm going to need to study your powerpoint presentation a couple of times before I start grafting. My email is jackdalyhhi@yahoo.com. Thank you Malcolm!

Dr. Manners, I would like to see you slide presentation too please.

Thanks, Ned

plantfolks@yahoo.com

Jack, Ned, Ramon, I just now sent the longer powerpoint program to you. Please let me know if it arrived ok, since I know long attachments can be problematic.

Malcolm

Dr. Manners I got the file ok, but Yahoo had kicked it in "BulK" file. I think it saw the large file a spam. I am glad you let us know you sent it.

Looks interesting. I'm going now to look it over now. Thought I would let you know I got it first.

Ned

I have been through the PP program. Well done! Thank you for sharing it with us.

Question: You seem to prefer plastic, instead to parafilm. Is that the case? I ask this question, because I use both, depending on what I am doing. I have observed that plastic tape does not split, like parafilm often does when the bud swells. I sometimes think the parafilm splitting to soon is a cause of bud failure. What are your thoughts on this?

Ned

Ned,
I do prefer plastic tape over parafilm, but not for any good scientific reason; I've just used it all my life and it is what I'm used to. On the other hand, I have never met a commercial grafter of mango who uses parafilm -- I don't know why, maybe like me, it is just tradition. I see no reason parafilm would not work, as long as you can get good, tight contact of scion to stock. That might require double-wrapping, but then, I generally double-wrap with plastic tape as well -- bottom to top the first time to seal everything in, then back down top to bottom, twisting the tape as I go, for some extra squeezing strength, especially on the internodes.

I would use parafilm layer then rubber band over the joint area and finally another layer of parafilm to cover the entire scionwood. If long lasting is needed, simply wrap more layer of parafilm to protect the rubber band. These fall off for me in all of my grafting and seldom ever go back to unwrap anything. Saves time and labor for me. I have bad experiences with polyethylene strips and I had several grafts girdled because I forgot where they are amongst the one and a half thousand that I do each year. Polyethylene strips are cheaper than parafilm, but not cheap enough to justify the second trip of unwrapping them.

Rubber band will deteriorate within a week if exposed to sunlight and air, but wrap it under parafilm, it lasts long enough, proportional to the number of layers of parafilm over it, from one month to one year, and it is your choice on how long you want it to stay. The parafilm and rubber and will fall off without you having to unwrap them. It is do it and don't care about the wrapping. The parafilm-rubber band combo is very good for cleft, bark, whip and tongue, veneer grafting also for chip and T-budding. It allows me to graft the entire year, from the dormant winter season even up to our hottest summer, but spanning different kinds of plants.

Joe,
In our climate, rubber bands are used for avocado, and they do fall off nicely on their own. However, in this climate, parafilm never, ever falls off. I've seen plants grafted well over a year with that molten layer of ugly crud on the trunk. Of course the buds do grow through it, and the plant seems none the worse for it, so maybe that's ok. But I'd think it would be difficult to sell such a plant. So here, when parafilm is used, is should always be removed by the nurseryman, generally by cutting through it vertically, then peeling the entire lump off as a unit.

Thanks Malcolm. I have sent parafilm grafting tapes to friends in the Philippines and they will report back within a year, so will be able to confirm such observations. Perhaps, humidity could play a big role in the slowdown of parafilm degradation.