Stem diameter for Italian tomato grafting

Abstract

The adoption of grafting in vegetable production is an innovative technique that presents challenges to be overcome, which one of the main ones is the need to determine the appropriate diameter of the plant at the time of grafting. Therefore, the objective of this work was to evaluate the development of seedlings and production of tomato plants, grafted with different stem diameters, under protected environmental conditions. The experiment was divided into two phases, seedling development and field production. The experimental design was completely randomized with five treatments, composed of the following seedlings stem diameters at the time of grafting: 1.8; 2.0; 2.2; 2.5 and 2.8 mm. Morphophysiological and productive characteristics of the grafted plants were evaluated. The results demonstrated that Italian tomato seedlings, grafted with 2.2 mm stem diameter, showed better development. However, the production rates were similar for the different stem diameters (1.8 to 2.8 mm) adopted at the grafting moment. Estimated yields of around 200 t/ha, much higher than the national average, demonstrate the success of the grafting technique in Italian tomatoes, under protected environmental conditions.