CHAPTER IV. 



PROPAGATION OF CITRUS TREES. 



Propagation by seed of Citrus plants except Kngdi Limlu is not 

 desirable in this part of the country. We have seen by actual sowing of 

 the seeds of Nagpur Santra, Hosambi and Reshmi Orange that seedlings of 

 these plants are exceedingly thorny. In fact, there is hardly any leaf 

 without a thorn. On the other hand these plants when budded 011 Jamburi 

 or any other stock (although the stock be thorny) do not produce thorns. 

 After careful examination of fifty budded Santra plants we have found 

 two plants having two thorns each. Mosambi plants do occasionally have 

 thorns bat these are very rare and the plants may be said to be practically 

 unarmed. Absence of thorns is a great advantage in Citrus trees as the 

 danger of puncturing the fruit is minimised and harvesting the fruit is 

 facilitated. Also digging, manuring and pruning can be done with It es 

 trouble. 



Another reason for the non-employ mebt of plants on their own roots 

 is that they will often not stand the same severe conditions as the stock 

 used. For example, Mosambi seedlings if flooded for a shoit time are 

 permanently checked in their growth ; the bark of the stem which remains 

 under water decays in a very short time, leaving the wood of the stem 

 completely exposed. As a result of this the plants turn yellow and sickly 

 and soon after become quite unfit for planting purposes Jamburi plnnts if 

 similarly flooded do not suffer at all This shows that Mosambi plants 

 will not bo satisfactory on their own roots where such a flood is possible. 



The pomelo can be propagated by budding on Jamburi siock, but the 

 bud takes a very long time, sometimes six months, to germinate It is;not 

 therefore convenient to propagate this plant by budding. At Gholvad and 

 other places, it is customary to propagate this plant by the gontie (Marcotte) 

 method, for which a branch three t< four feet long is selected ; a portion 

 of the bark which is light brown in colour is removed without injuring the 

 wood below, to an extent of about two inches, and a small quantity of earth, 

 is wrapped on the wound in a piece of gunny bag. The soil is kept moi^t by 

 the dripping of water from a pot hanging over it. This oper > tiou is done at 

 the commencement of the rains and the plant is ready for removal in 

 about four months. There being generally plenty of rain during this 

 period, the expenses of keeping the soil moist are considerably minimised 

 and therefore this method is found very cheap and convenient. 



The Kagdi Limbu also is propagated by the gootie method mostly in 

 the Surat and Thana Districts. By this method roots are freely produced 

 in the rainy season and a plant of about two feet in height is readily secured. 

 In the Deccan this plant is mostly propagated by seed, but in favourable 

 cases it is possible to bud this plant on jamburi stock. The lowest one or 

 two buds on a season's growth are often without thorns. Such buds though 

 normally very small, can be made to swell in about a week by pruning the 

 upper thorny portion of the branch and then can be used as scions. The 

 percentage of success in this method is, however, small as compared with 

 what is attained with Santra and Mosambi plants. This method, though 

 not useful for dealers in nursery plauts, may be advantageously practiced 

 by growers in their plantations, as budded plants grow very vigorously 

 and bear early. 



B 608-8 



