GRAFTED PLANTS Six compatible graft partners have also been identified by us. The high yielding, drought susceptible clones such as UPASI-3, UPASI-8 and UPASI-17 can be cleft grafted on to the drought tolerant root stock clones UPASI-2, UPASI-6 and UPASI-9.Composite plants developed through grafting are superior to the ungrafted clones in field. When compared to the ungrafted scion clones, the grafts have shown 30% increase in productivity.

To simplify the grafting technique and to make large scale production commercially viable, graftingclips were developed to secure the graft partners at the graft interface. We have also developed motorised scion and root stock maker to facilitate large scale production of grafts. The new scion clones such as BSB-1 and NLT/17/10 and the drought tolerant clones TRI-2025, UPASI-26, C-1 and ATK were evaluated for their graft compatibility. The graft success ranged from 88 to 98 percent in different graft combinations.

REJUVENATING THE OLD NURSERY PLANTS BY CLEFT GRAFTING : Old nursery plants retained in the nursery shed most of their leaves mature leaves after one year. If these plants are planted in the field, low centering is not possible since they were devoid of leaves in the lower part of the stem. The over grown root system of these plants has to be pruned first to retain their length up to the end of the polythene sleeve. They can be treated as rootstocks and cleft grafted with any recommended scion clones. Both the single nodal cuttings and crop shoots comprising three leaves and a bud can be used for grafting. After grafting, the composite plants should be kept inside the polythene tunnel for facilitating grafting union. Six /seven months after grafting, these plants can be transferred to open space for hardening. One year after grafting in the nursery, plants will be fit for transplanting in the filed.

PROPAGATION Vegetative propagation is carried out for clonal multiplication while biclonal seed stocks are propagated through seeds. V. P. Tea nursery should be located near a perennial water source. An over head 'Pandal' is raised on which a coir mat with 6 mm2 mesh is spread so as to allow about 33 percent sunlight at midday into the nursery. Polythene sleeves with a dimension of 30x10 cm are used for filling up the sandy loam/clayey loam soils. One leaf and an internodal cutting with an axillary bud prepared from the Aperiodic shoots arising from pruned tea bush is planted in the nursery sleeve and covered with a polythene sheet of 400 g. April / May and August / September are the most suitable months for planting in nursery. The plants are allowed to grow for 10-12 months in the nursery, after which they are transplanted in the field.