NMR microimaging studies of the union between stock and scion

In this study we demonstrate the applicability of nuclear magnetic resonanc e (NMR) microimaging in examining the efficiency of grafting coniferous pla nts. Grafting is a method of propagating plants. It is used mainly in garde ning. In some cases it is the only possible way to propagate certain variet ies (e.g., apple varieties). The biology of grafting is nor well investigat ed yet. Therefore we have decided to rake advantage of the magnetic resonan ce imaging techniques in order to estimate which of the commonly used graft ing methods gives the best quality unions. Results of our experiment indica te that the quality of union depends very much on the grafting method. NMR images give more information about the graft than microscopic images. We ho pe that our technique can select the best way to prepare plants for graftin g and indicate average time of union process.