CURRENT NOTES FIRST QUARTER. 



NOTES IIY P. J. WESTER, Horticulturist in Charge of Lamao 

 Experiment Station. 



SHIELD BUDDING THE MANGO. 



The one defect in the Pound method of shield budding the 

 mango described in Bureau of Agriculture Bulletin No. 18, The 

 Mango, consists of the necessity of placing an apron to protect 

 the long petiole left on the bud from the sun and the entrance 

 of water, which work necessarily requires more time than if the 

 bud could be wrapped as is the case in budding citrus trees. 

 However, a possible use of scarred or nonpetioled budwood as 

 a means of obviating the need of the apron was suggested in 

 the above-mentioned publication. The results obtained in recent 

 experiments conducted at the Lamao experiment station (No- 

 vember and December, 1914) have fully come up to the expecta- 

 tions of this modification, and if the work is carefully performed, 

 the operator should have no trouble in obtaining 85 per cent of 

 live buds by proceeding in accordance with the following direc- 

 tions : 



(1) Select budwood that is well matured, from the first, second, and 

 third flushes from the end of a branch. This budwood is always green 

 and smooth. 



(2) Three weeks or more in advance of the date when the budding 

 is to be performed, cut off the leaf blades of the budwood selected. This 

 causes the petioles to drop. When the scars left after the petioles have 

 fallen are well healed the budwood is in condition for budding. 



(3) The buds should be cut about 4 centimeters long, with an ample 

 wood shield, and inserted in the stock at a point where the bark is 

 green and smooth like the budwood, not where it is rough and brownish. 



(4) Use waxed tape in tying and cover the entire bud. 



(5) When in the course of two to three weeks a good union has 

 formed, unwind the wrapping so as to expose the leaf bud from which 

 the growth is to issue, and cut off the top of the stock 10 to 15 centimeters 

 above the bud. 



(6) Every ten days after unwrapping the buds go through the nursery 

 and carefully rub off all stock sprouts in order to force the buds to 

 grow. 



All other precautions that are taken in ordinary shield budding 

 must, of course, also be attended to in order to insure success. 



57 



