Coimbatore: The Tamil Nadu Agricultural University’s horticulture department will produce about 40,000 brinjal grafts, belonging to seven varieties What makes the plants different will be the fact that the grafts will be produced with a new technique of grafting brinjal seedling with the rootstock of turkey berry (Solanum turvam, sundakkai in Tamil).This technique was found to double the yield of an ordinary brinjal seedling, increase the lifespan of the plant and make it more drought and pest resistant.The grafts will be ready for transplantation into farmer’s fields within 90 days of the process. The technique includes planting seeds of the turkey berry in protrays and planting seeds of brinjal in a separate protray 30 days later. Sixty days after the turkey berry is planted, both plants produce stems of approximately same thickness. The brinjal plant’s scion (stem) and the turkey berry’s rootstock are then grafted together with clips /grafting machine, horticulture dean L Pugalendhi explained.The state government plans to popularize the technology developed by TNAU and supply it to farmers. “We already have grafts for three varieties of brinjal including COBH1, CO2 and DHURUVA. Once farmers are impressed with the grafts, they will start multiplying them on their own,” he said.“While an ordinary brinjal plant produces about 2.5kg to 3kg in one season, the brinjal graft can produce seven to eight kilogram. While the existing crop, through seedling, has to be replaced for every six months, the grafted brinjal can remain on the field for a year and give a good yield.”The grafted plant also has a tap root system, which grows four to five feet into the soil, scientists said.Earlier, TNAU used to manually produce hybrid grafts of brinjal and tomato. They would be able to produce a maximum of hundred saplings per hour. But now, the department has automated the process. It now uses a robotic device that would cut two plants and graft them together. By this, up to 800 grafted saplings can be produced in an hour.The machine, which TNAU imported from Korea, would cut out the rootstock from one plant and the shot from another plant and fix them with a clip. This raw graft is then healed in a healing chamber and then hardened. After about 20 days, they become fit to be sold to farmers.The automated vegetable grafting machine, which the department has been using for about six months now, has ensured efficiency and productivity. “We are researching on grafting chillies using the machine and are also looking to replicate the mechanism locally,” added Pugalendhi.So far, the department has produced about 50,000 grafted plants using the machine.

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