Rejuvenation techniques like pruning, manuring, thinning shoots, and controlling pests and diseases can help restore productivity and vitality to old orchards. Top working methods such as cleft grafting and wedge grafting involve grafting desirable scions or shoots onto the branches or trunks of existing trees to convert them to more profitable varieties. Bridge grafting can repair tree injuries by grafting scions between the damaged section and healthy crown to restore nutrient transport.

1. Pradeep Kumar Vishwakarma
And
Jyotika R. Bamaniya

2. Rejuvenation
• Rejuvenation means restoring vitality and freshness
of plants. It is another name for renewal.
• Rejuvenation is attempted to make the plant new.
• In India many existing orchards are not as productive
as their potential.
• Selection of poor planting material, improper
plantation and upkeep make orchards uneconomic.
These situations necessitate need for rejuvenation.
• Various factors which make the plant susceptible to
rejuvenations are as under:

3. • Infestation of orchards
• Improper planting
• Planting material
• Faulty site
• Adverse weather conditions
• Attack of pests and pathogen

5. Objectives of Rejuvenation
• Enhance the productivity of old fruit orchards.
• Provide quality planting material to farmers at
reasonable to increase yield per capital.
• Make senile orchards productive and juvenile.
• Enhance the profitability.
• Conservation of old progeny or species.

6. Top working
• It is the process of converting an undesirable plant
into desirable type. Usually seedling stand of fruit
plants are considered suitable for top working.
• Top-working is generally done on long-lived
species, growing in a healthy condition.
• Short-lived species, diseased trees are not suitable
for top-working; in such cases new planting is
considered more economical and useful than top-
working.

7. • To begin with the process, the plants are headed back
within 1 meter height from ground level during spring
when the plant is in active growth stage. The new shoot
appeared in response of heading back are selected and
vegetative propagation (budding/grafting) method is
resorted during June-July.
• Any method of grafting (splice, cleft, side or bark) can
be-used for top-working. However, cleft is the most
popular and commonly used method, especially when
thick branches are selected.
• When younger and thin branches are used, whip and
tongue is the best method.
• Top-working is most successful when relatively young
trees are used. The branches to be grafted should be 2.5
to 7.5 or 10.0 cm in thickness.

8. • The branches to be top-worked should be cut in such a
way that the cut surface is smooth, and is at a point of
the branch where there are no knots or smaller
branches.
• Scions for top-working are collected when they are
dormant. They should be collected from healthy trees,
free from diseases, especially from viruses.
Immediately after collection the scions are wrapped
with polyethylene film and stored at 0°C. Dormant
scions unite with the stock promptly and start growing
within a few weeks.
• During grafting care should be taken to see that the
scion is not dried by exposure to the sun. Immediately
after each limb is grafted, it should be thoroughly
covered with grafting wax, sealing all the exposed cut
surfaces.

10. Aftercare of top-worked trees
• Top-worked trees should be inspected every 3 to
5 days and if the wax covering of the graft joint
shown any cracks or holes, a fresh coating of wax
should be immediately applied.
• Sun-burn of the trunk is a serious problem in top-
worked trees, especially when grafting is done in
late spring and there is no nurse branch. Under
such conditions, white-washing the trunk and
branches will help in reflecting the radiant energy,
and will prevent sun-burn injury by keeping tie
bark of the tree quite cool.

11. • Usually more than one (2 to 4) scions are grafted
to each limb, However, if all the scions unite and
grow, there will be excessive crowding of
branches.
• It is better to select the best placed and strongest
growing scion for growing permanently and all
other weak growing scions should be removed
after a few years of observation of their growth
habit.
• The top worked tree should be irrigated
periodically and fertilized. Plant protection
measures should also be adopted to prevent the
rotting of wood and to keep away the bark-eating
caterpillars.

12. Techniques of Rejuvenation
Pruning
• Pruning is very powerful technique of rejuvenating the
plants. It brings juvenility. While pruning every attempt
is made to remove dead, damaged, diseased and
interlacerating branches.
• Generally pruning is resorted at breast height at about
2m height from ground level. Lower the pruning more
vigorous is the sprouting. It is the physiological age not
chronological age that is most important for juvenility
and in turn the ability of the plant to sprout.
• Further after long bearing age, trees itself enter into
senility. Pruning helps in invigorating such trees.

13. Manuring
• Timely manuring and fertilization is essential for
good resume of rejuvenated plants. Manures and
fertilizers are applied one month ahead of
flowering.
• On rejuvenated plants upon emergence of new
growth micronutrients should be supplied. These
nutrients may also be applied repeatedly during
new growth stage of plants.
• However, the requirement of major nutrients
especially N, P, K being of higher order, these
must be applied through soil application.

14. Thinning of shoots
• In response to pruning there is emergence of several
shoots on the plants, These shoots remain over
crowded one over the other. Aeration, penetration of
light, space etc among branches are not at all proper.
To deal with the situation, only selected number of
shoot may be allowed to grow on the plant.
• While thinning, 4-5 shoots spread all around the plant
may be allowed to grow. Rest shoots are removed.
• Healthy, vigorous, well sprouted and well spaced
shoots are retained to constitute framework of
rejuvenated plants.

15. Supplemental feeding
• A damaged plant can be brought back to vigorous stage
by arranging for infusion of sap. For this purpose, many
seeds are planted near trunk of the plant. They are
allowed to grow.
• When seedlings attain height of about 1metre, they are
detopped.
• Their top portions are incisized in form of wedge.
Similar matching cut is given in trunk of plant requiring
rejuvenation pruning.
• After then the seedlings top portions are inserted in
bark of damaged plant. After some time union takes
place and the seedlings become part of old rejuvenating
tree.

16. Control of devitalizing agents
• Pests and diseases act as major devitalizing agent of
plants. In woody perennial plants there is heavy
incidence of bark eating caterpillar, trunk borer, leaf
eating caterpillar pests, etc.
• In long run these pests devitalize the plants. With trunk
borer, the plants xylem tissues are damaged, the flow of
cell sap is hampered and the plants enter the stage of
decadence.
• Diseases also ruin the health of plants. Leaf spot
disease, pink diseases, stem rot, root rot, etc. take a
heavy toll on survival of plants. These causative
diseases need timely control.

17. Cleft grafting
• It is one of the oldest techniques of top working trees. It
is also useful for propagating small trees.
• In case of top working tree, the use of this technique
should be limited to branches of about 2.5 to10 cm
diameter.
• The plant species which has straight grained wood and
splits evenly, are considered ideal for cleft grafting.
• On the stub to be grafted, a downward vertical split of 5
to 8 cm length is prepared. The vertical incision is
made on two sides of stock.
• The scion shoot of 8 to 10 cm length and pencil
thickness is used. Matching incision is prepared on
lower portion of scion. The scion is inserted in vertical
slits of rootstock.

19. Wedge grafting
• Old trees can be rejuvenated through wedge
grafting.
• The plant is cut in form of stub at about 1 m
height from ground. V-wedge about 5 cm deep is
prepared in the side of stub. Similar matching V
shape cut is prepared at the bottom of scion.
• The scion is tapped downward firmly into place.
It is kept outward slightly at the top to have a best
match of cambium layer. Every attempt is made
that scion should be held tightly in place to
prevent its dislodging.

20. Bridge grafting
• It is used to repair the plants. Quiet often plants receive injury due to
cultivation equipments, winter injury, diseases, pests, rodents, etc.
The damage is excessive, the tree is very sure to die.
• Actually the damage causes hindrances in translocation of nutrients
from top to roots. Bridge grafting takes care of it.
• It is best performed during early spring when the plant is actively
growing and there is slipping of bark easily. The scion should be
obtained from 1 year old growth.
• Dormant scion of 6-13 mm diameter is used for grafting. Before
attempting bridge grafting wounded area is trimmed back to healthy,
undamaged tissue by removing dead or damaged part. V-shape
incision is made at the tip and also the bottom of rootstock to insert
scion. The scion is inserted every 5-7 around the injured section of
the plant. After insertion of all scions, the cut surface must be
covered by graft wax.

22. Frame working
• Grafting many small secondary scaffold branches high
on the tree constitutes frame working.
• It requires insertion of grafts throughout the main frame
of the tree. A large number of scions is required to
replace the small laterals and scaffold branches. Growth
coming out of the previous frame of the tree is removed
time to time to favour establishment of the scions.
• Frame working is resorted using budding/grafting
technique. The frame worked plants reward good
fruiting. But, the technique being cumbersome and
expensive, it is not practiced commercially in the
orchard.