Influence of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) Seedling Grafting on Plant Growth, Fruit Yield and Quality, and Disease Tolerance
Abstract
Influence of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) seedling grafting on the plant growth, fruit yield and quality, and disease tolerance were investigated using 3 cultivars (Big Beef, Celebrity, Cannonball) as scions and two Solanum species (B-blocking, Maxifort) as a rootstock in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The grafted plants were statistically higher in values for stem diameter, leaf chlorophyll, and fruit carotenoid contents. Similarly, the scion/rootstock combination ‘Big Beef/Maxifort’ and ‘Big Beef/B-blocking’ had prolonged days to maturity and gives a higher yield than the non-grafted ‘Big Beef’. Grafting seedling on ‘Maxifort’ and ‘B-blocking’ rootstocks improves the fruit quality like titratable acidity (TA), fruit firmness, but didn’t alter the pH, total soluble solid (TSS), lycopene and TSS/TA. Also, grafted treatment ‘Big Beef/Maxifort’ was found to be a highly disease resistant treatment when compared to the ‘Big Beef’ control with mean relative effect 0.074.