Evidence of graft transmissible flowering factors in mango.
Kulkarni V. J.
Author Affiliation: Fruit Research Station, Sangareddy 502?001, India.
: 426-432
Abstract : Defoliated vegetative scion shoots of cultivars Alphonso, Bombay, Dashehari, Langra and Totapari, which flower normally once per year, could be induced to flower in the off-season by veneer grafting them onto flowering shoots of the cv. Royal Special (Chirutapudigoa), which flowers more than once per year (Nov.-Jan. and Mar.-May) during the normal off-season. Necessary pre-requisites for inducing flowering were that the donor shoots should be flowering, that mature leaves were absent from the grafted scion, and that meristematic activity should be present in the scion to respond to the stimulus. Both young shoots, and shoots that had already fruited in the main season, could be induced to flower by this method. It is postulated that leaves synthesize a floral stimulus in a cyclic manner, the intervals between 2 such cycles deciding the flowering behaviour of the cultivar.