Survival and Growth Response of Regular and Epicormic Shoots of Top Grafted Shea (Vitellaria paradoxa) Saplings

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Abstract

Regular shoots arise from active bud-producing tissues, whereas, epicormic shoots develop from dormant buds. In this study, the survival and growth response of regular and epicormic shoots to top grafting of shea (Vitellaria paradoxa) saplings were investigated. The two treatments (regular and epicormic shoots) were arranged in a complete randomized design with 150 replications. Three hundred shea saplings were therefore randomly selected as rootstocks while one hundred and fifty each of regular and epicormic shoots obtained from branches of mature shea trees used as scions were top grafted onto the saplings. The data collected were subjected to t-test using Genstat Statistical Package (version 12.1) and treatment means compared at p<0.05. The study revealed that regular shoots had higher survival (65 %) compared with epicormic shoots (30 %) in top grafting of shea saplings. However, epicormic shoots gave significantly higher scion girth (4.76 cm) than regular shoots (3.89 cm) at 16 weeks after top grafting (WATG). There were no significant differences between the treatments in terms of growth extension of scion, number of leaves and shoot height at 16 WATG. The results suggest the use of regular shoots in top grafting of shea saplings to achieve higher survival of propagules.