Am involved with a non profit in Haiti planting some 800,000 tree pa. for land reclaimation. Am seeking to upgrade current practice of raising avocado and mango from seed by grafting. Am OK with how to graft but would value advice on when and any before and after techniques?
Sounds like a very interesting project... In my experience with grafting mango and avocado: For rootstock, use seed from trees already established in Haiti and adapted to existing soil/rainfall/etc. Grow seedlings until stem is the thickness of a pencil, or a bit less, usually takes six months in the tropics. The best time to harvest sine wood from a tree is after it has fruited, but before new buds have emerged. The best time to graft is in the first quarter of the moon cycle, when sap flow is most active. Make sure you keep the graft dry. They sell sealants, but probably not in Haiti. Use thin plastic bags, cut into strips, to wrap grafts with. Wrap tight and tie them off. It is also very helpful to provide a protected environment for each newly grafted tree by placing a clear plastic bag over it as a sleeve, like a miniature greenhouse. I'm not sure what kind of varieties you're going to graft, but its always helpful to keep different cultivars labeled, so you can keep track of which ones do best. Dominican Republic has some good mango varieties. If you're interested, I keep this website http://anthrome.wordpress.com/species-list/ with which I have documented many species of underexploited tropical food crops (mostly perennials and fruit and nut trees) with high nutritional value.
