The production of citrus nursery trees in portable containers is a new developing technology and requires investment in research to acquire information on various stages of their production, including the methods to force post grafting bud break. The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of the coverage of buds with plastic tapes as well as the time to force bud break on the establishment and development of 'Tahiti' lime scions. The rootstock used was the 'Rangpur' lime (Citrus limonia Osbeck), obtained from the germination of seeds, while the lime variety 'Tahiti' (Citrus latifolia Tanaka) was used as the scion. The treatments tested were buds covered with plastic tape and uncovered buds at 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, and 35 days after the completion of the budding. After budding, the plants were kept in a greenhouse with dripping irrigation. The experimental design was the randomized blocks, with five replicates and three plants per plot. There was no interaction among the factors studied, while the index of positive grafting was not influenced by the treatments and total coverage of the buds with plastic tape encouraged dormancy of the buds. The bud break of 'Tahiti' lime using the method of bending showed the best results when applied 10 days after grafting.
Nursery-tree production; Citrus latifolia; Citrus limonia
