Instrumental and sensory analyses of fruit quality attributes of grafted grape tomatoes in high tunnel organic production systems

Abstract

BACKGROUND: 'Vegetative' and 'generative' tomato rootstock types have been proposed based on their different effects on tomato scion growth performance; however, their impacts on fruit quality have not been characterized. No study has been conducted in which the effects of rootstock on grape tomato quality attributes were assessed using sensory and instrumental methods of evaluation. Here, we conducted two experiments to examine the influence of 'DR0141TX', 'Estamino', and 'Multifort' rootstocks (vegetative, generative, and uncharacterized, respectively) on fruit quality properties of determinate and indeterminate grape tomato scions under organic production in high tunnels, including color, size, firmness, dry matter content, soluble solids content (SSC), titratable acidity (TA), pH, and consumer sensory attributes. RESULTS:In both experiments, grafting 'Sweet Hearts' indeterminate grape tomato onto 'DR0141TX', 'Estamino', or 'Multifort' increased fruit size and led to negligible effects on sensory attributes and instrumental measurements of fruit quality attributes. For 'BHN 1022' determinate grape tomato, rootstocks did not exhibit any major impact on fruit quality attributes in Experiment 1. However, fruit quality was compromised by grafting per se and rootstocks, especially 'Multifort', in Experiment 2, as reflected by reduced SSC, TA, and SSC/TA and lower scores for overall appearance, overall acceptability, tomato flavor, overall texture, and sweetness. CONCLUSION: In general, 'vegetative' and 'generative' rootstocks showed comparable effects on sensory evaluations and instrumental measurements of grape tomato quality attributes for both indeterminate and determinate scions. More research is needed to better characterize rootstock effects on fruit quality, including the flavor-related compounds under different growing conditions.

Anthocyanin Accumulation and Its Corresponding Gene Expression, Total Phenol, Antioxidant Capacity, and Fruit Quality of ‘Crimson Seedless’ Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) in Response to Grafting and Pre-Harvest Applications

“…Notably, the TA was lower in fruits on grafted vines, while no significant difference was detected in SSC. Similar results were reported by Gong et al [73].…”

Tomato fruit quality is more strongly affected by scion type and planting season than by rootstock type

“… Lang et al (2020) also evaluated the same three rootstocks (‘DR0141TX’, ‘Estamino’, and ‘RST-04-106-T’) in a 2-year high tunnel study and found that they did not impact beefsteak tomato firmness, which was in agreement with our findings in Fall planting. Our previous study involving both ‘DR0141TX’ and ‘Estamino’ showed that the impacts of these two rootstocks on grape tomato firmness varied with harvest dates ( Gong et al, 2022 ). In terms of effects of rootstock genetic background on tomato fruit firmness, we found that interspecific rootstock ‘Estamino’ consistently decreased fruit firmness of beefsteak tomato but not grape tomato in both planting seasons, while the intraspecific rootstock ‘Shield’ showed no impacts.…”

“…Consistently lower tomato fruit dry matter content with grafting onto interspecific rootstocks (‘Estamino’) in the present study was also observed by Turhan et al (2011) and Djidonou et al (2016) . Moreover, our previous studies involving three vigorous rootstocks (‘DR0141TX’, ‘Estamino’, and ‘Multifort’) showed that rootstock impacts on fruit dry matter content of grape tomato fruit varied with harvest dates and scion cultivars ( Gong et al, 2022 ). In contrast, Gioia et al (2010) demonstrated that interspecific rootstocks ( S. lycopersicum × S. habrochaites ) did not affect fruit dry matter content regardless of harvest dates.…”

“…These mixed results indicate that rootstocks with similar genetic backgrounds could exert different impacts on tomato fruit sensory attributes depending on the scion genotype and growing conditions. Our previous findings with ‘DR0141TX’ and ‘Estamino’ showed that rootstock effects on grape tomato fruit SSC, TA, SSC/TA, and pH were scion cultivar and harvest date dependent ( Gong et al, 2022 ). According to Lang et al (2020) , the effects of ‘DR0141TX’, ‘Estamino’, and ‘RST-04-106-T’ on beefsteak tomato SSC, TA, and SSC/TA varied with years, whereas pH values were not affected by these rootstocks.…”

“…Lang et al ( 2020) also evaluated the same three rootstocks ('DR0141TX' , 'Estamino' , and 'RST-04-106-T') in a 2-year high tunnel study and found that they did not impact beefsteak tomato firmness, which was in agreement with our findings in Fall planting. Our previous study involving both 'DR0141TX' and 'Estamino' showed that the impacts of these two rootstocks on grape tomato firmness varied with harvest dates (Gong et al, 2022).…”