Effect of Different Times of Budding on Budding Success and Subsequent Seedling Growth in Peach

Abstract : The present experiment entitled “Effect of different times of budding on subsequent seedling growth of Peach” was carried in open field conditions at fruit nursery, Department of Horticulture, Paktia University, Gardiz, Paktia province, Afghanistan during the year 2018-2019. Peach cv. Benidict was T-budded on peach seedling rootstocks with four different times (May 9; June 13; July 7 and August 23, 2018). The objective of this investigation was to find out the appropriate time of budding in order to obtain vigorous budded saplings under climatic conditions of Paktia province. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Completely Block design with 10 replicates. The results showed that different budding times had significantly affected the bud take success rate and vegetative growth of budded saplings. Budding in August and June (T4 and T2) revealed the highest bud takes success rate (87% and 83,33%) respectively, however budding in May (T1) with lowest bud take success rate (20%). Budding in June (T2) and August (T4) had not showed significant difference among themselves. Budding in May (T1) obtained first rank with highest average number of lateral branches (14,85), stem diameter (13,73mm), longest sprout length (104,7cm) and highest average number of leaves (207,7), though budding in June (T2), July (T3) and August(T4) had not showed significant difference in vegetative growth parameters like number of lateral branches and stem diameter. According to Fisher’s LSD test budded saplings in August (T4) obtained the shortest sprout length (53,8cm), However, the sprout length among the budded saplings in May (T1), June (T2) and July (T3) was not found significantly different. The highest average number of leaves (207, 7) and lowest average number of leaves (54, 2) was recorded under T1 (May budding) and T4 (August budding) respectively, Meanwhile the average number of leaves was not significantly different among T2 (June budding) and T3 (July budding) budding times.