Effects of Rootstock Diameter of Litchi(Litchi chi-nensis Sonn.)cv.Heli on the Survival Rate and Growth in Grafts of Litchi cv.Xianjinfeng
[Objective]The present experiment was conducted to provide a reference for li-tchi variety improvement by top grafting.[Method]Two grafting methods,pry-grafting for thick rootstock(diameter d≥3 cm)and cut-grafting for spindly rootstock(1 cm≤d<3 cm)of litchi(Li-tchi chinensis Sonn.)cv.Heli,were used,respectively,to graft litchi cv.Xianjinfeng.The graft sur-vival rate,scion diameter,scion length,scion shooting batch in Xianjinfeng under different rootstock diamers(1 cm≤d<2 cm,2 cm≤d<3 cm,3 cm≤d<4 cm,4 cm≤d<5 cm,5 cm≤d<6 cm,6 cm≤d<7 cm,d≥7 cm)were investigated respectively.[Result]The results showed that the graft survival rate was highly significantly negatively correlated with the diameter of rootstock in the experiments done on March 15th and May 4th,and the graft survival rates were 83.3%and 56.9%in the treatment with rootstock diameter of 2~3 cm,which were significantly higher than those in the other treatments.The scion diameter was highly significantly positively correlated with the diameter of rootstock in the experiments done on March 15th,while it was significantly posi-tively correlated in the experiments done on May 4th,and the scion diameters were 14.9 mm and 12.1 mm in the treatment with rootstock diameter of 6~7 cm,which were significantly higher than that in the other treatments.The scion length was significantly positively correlated with the diam-eter of rootstock in the experiments done on March 15th,while it was not significantly correlated in the experiments done on May 4th,and the scion length was 100.5 cm and 65.8 cm in the treatment with rootstock diameter of 6~7 cm,which were significantly higher than those in the other treat-ments.There was no significant correlation between the scion shooting number with the rootstock di-ameter in the experiments done on March 15th and May 4th,and the scion shooting batches were be-tween 3 and 5 times.[Conclusion]Based on the effects of 2 grafting methods on the graft survival rate and growth traits in Xianjinfeng which was grafted with Heli as rootstock,it is suitable to do li-tchi top grafting in March with the rootstock diameter of 1~5 cm which could improve the graft sur-vival rate and growth.