Grafting Of mangoes.

A mango is an evergreen fruit tree of the cashew family. Mangoes are widely cultivated in the tropics. It bears fleshy yellowish fruits that are either eaten ripe or green. Mangoes are among the drought resistant trees in Kenya, and therefore suitable for the arid areas. There are different types of mangoes.Two of them are;apple mango and ken tine mango. Some mangoes are indigenous and others are hybrid kinds.

In order to improve the yield and quality of mangoes, they can be grafted. ''Grafting'' in horticulture refers to the process whereby a shoot or scion is inserted into a slit of stock, from which it receives sap. It is the term used to refer to the action of taking a scion from a mature fruit tree, preferably of better quality and connecting it to the root stem of another plant of the same species.
Grafting improves yields and reduce the time of yielding thus taking little time to bear fruits.

Procedure for grafting:
1.Prepare a seedbed where you will plant your seedlings.
2.Plant the seedlings.
3.Mulch the seedbed and start watering it.
4.When they attain a height of about 10cm,transfer them to a
polythene paper bag filled with soil.
5.Put them under a shade and continue watering
6.When they attain a height of about 30cm and they produce buds they
are now ready to be grafted.
7.Cut a bud from the mango that you are using for grafting.
8.Cut the part to be joint to make a wedged shaped
9.Insert it on a slit where you have cut in a stock.
10.Tie it using a polythene paper well and tight
11.When the bud attaches itself to the new position,its ready to be
planted.

Planting the tree:
a.Dig a well rounded hole of about 1m 3ft height.
b.Mix the soil with manure before you plant
c.Then put the well mixed mixture into the hole about ½ a metre
d.Remove the polythene paper where your tree is and plant it
e.Water the young tree till the roots gets stable in the soil

You will realize that grafted mangoes takes a shorter period to produce fruits than ungrafted ones. The practice is highly recommended, because farmers don’t have to wait for all the time its takes for un-grafted mango to mature, and start bearing fruits. Fruits from grafted mango trees are of higher quality and therefore fetches more money and sells faster than fruits from un-grafted trees.

Farmers in kenya have been urged to start practicing ''Agribusiness'' that is taking agriculture as any other business. Farmers should therefore add value to their fruits in order to increase their household income.

Written by Elizabeth Ngugi.