Comparison of Hydroponic and Conventional Grafting Techniques in Black Pepper (Piper nigrum L.)

The most devastating disease affecting black pepper (Piper nigrum L.) is Phytophthora foot rot against which none of the varieties is resistant. This difficulty has been overcome by the horticultural technique of grafting P. nigrum on the resistant root stock viz. P. colubrinum- a marshy wild relative of black pepper .The conventional technique of grafting P. nigrum on P. colubrinum takes nine months to one year for developing a graft ready to be planted in the field and is labour and irrigation intensive. Hydroponic soil-less methods based on the marshy adaptation of P.colubrinum and which require lesser labour and water have been explored to address the issues with the conventional method. An experiment in complete randomised design with five grafting methods and six replications was conducted at Pepper Research Station, Panniyoor,Kannur, Kerala, India during 2019-20 to compare the conventional grafting technique with hydroponic techniques. Instant grafting of the scion portion on the non - rooted root stock portion and rooting of the root stock hydroponically once the grafting procedure is completed has been found to produce field ready grafts in 95 days with the lowest graft loss of 6.8 per cent and water use efficiency of 117.7 per cent.