Water soaking and benzyladenine as strategy for improving grapevine grafting success

Abstract The grafting of grapevines has become essential to overcome biotic and abiotic stresses because permits access to the benefits of the agronomical characteristics of different rootstocks. Stimulating the rapid formation of the grafting union is the key to grafting success. This investigation studied the effect of removing growth inhibitors through soaking in water for 24 hours versus adding growth stimulate through fast dipping in 250 mg/L benzyladenine (BA) for 30 seconds of graft wood before grafting on the grafting success of ‘Flame Seedless’ and ‘Early Sweet’ scions (Vitis vinifera) grafted onto ‘Freedom’ rootstock (Vitis champinii x 1613C). Water soaking came first and followed by treatment of 250 mg/L BA, which significantly improved the grafting success of both cultivars. Grafting success was positively associated with increasing callus formation at the grafting zone, which was accompanied with the highest total indols content, the lowest total phenols content, and peroxidase activity above and below the grafting zone. However, water soaking significantly increased total indols and decreased the total phenols content of the ungrafted cuttings. In this study, it was suggested that the application of water soaking to grafted cuttings prior to grafting is an environmentally friendly and alternative practice for synthetic growth regulators to improve grafted cuttings success.