The effect of using grafted seedlings on the yield and quality of tomatoes grown in greenhouses

Abstract

This study was aimed at observing the effect of the grafting of tomato plants on morphological (vegetative growth), production and nutritive characteristics (quantity and quality of production). For this purpose, the ‘Lorely F1’ cultivar was used as a scion grafted onto the ‘Beaufort’ rootstock. Plants were cultivated with a stem and two stems. The observations collected in this study were concerned with the characteristics of plant growth. The studied morphological characteristics were plant height, stem diameter and number of leaves, and the studied production characteristics were the characteristics of fructification and productivity (the average number of fruit per plant, the average weight of the fruit, production per plant). Particular attention was paid to the nutritional characteristics of the fruit, to the fruit quality (total soluble solids, total sugar, acidity, vitamin C, antioxidant activity (by the Trolox method) and the contents of lycopene and beta-carotene). The results showed that grafting positively influenced the growth and production characteristics. Grafting of tomato plants had an appreciable effect on the vegetative growth of the variant 2-grafted tomatoes with a stem. The best option in terms of productivity and production was the variant 3-grafted tomatoes with two stems, which yielded 9.2 kg per plant. Fruit quality was not improved in any of the grafted variants.

Quality of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) Due to Grafting in Solanaceae of Different Species

“…Sirtoli et al (2011), evaluating the development of plants and the physical-chemical characterization of Platinum hybrid, grafted and free-footed fruits, did not observe differences for the variables: water loss, texture, soluble solids, titratable acidity and SST / TA. Similar result observed by Soare et al (2018), who evaluated the 'Lorely F1' cultivar as a graft on the 'Beaufort' rootstock, did not observe differences on the quality of the fruits produced in comparison to the free foot. Different results were observed in the present study, where a significant variation was observed in titratable acidity, pH and fruit flavor among treatments.…”

Phenology growth and yield of grafted tomato plants in the high Andean region of Colombia

“…The increased performance with the use of rootstock vigor validates the findings of Kyriacou et al (2017); Soare et al (2018) and Zeist et al (2017), who indicated that grafting onto vigorous rootstocks has been employed in open fields and under protected cultivation, where grafting positively influenced growth, yield and fruit. Similar results were found by Khah et…”

“…The grafting technique combines the shoot of a desirable cultivar (scion) onto a rootstock with desirable characteristics (Chaudhari et al, 2016). Grafting onto vigorous and resistant rootstocks has been employed not only in open fields but also under protected cultivation where grafting has positively influenced growth, yield, and quality, even in the absence of disease as the result of tolerance to abiotic stresses (Kyriacou et al, 2017;Gaion et al, 2018;Soare et al, 2018).…”

Effects of Chemical and Organic Fertilizer Treatments on Yield and Quality Traits of Industrial Tomato

“…Soluble solid contents (SSC) were determined in a refractometer (Abbe-type refractometer, model 60/Direct Reading, Bellington and Stanley Inc., Kent, UK) directly with the use of fruit juice and results were expressed in °Brix at 20 °C. Titratable acidity (TA) content was determined by titration with 0.1 N sodium hydroxide (NaOH), using phenolphthalein as an indicator and results were expressed in % citric acid (Soare et al, 2018). The lycopene and total carotenoid contents were determined by petroleum ether-acetone extraction and measured at the wavelength of 452 and 472 nm using a spectrophotometer (Shimadzu UV-1208, Shimadzu Co., Kyoto, Japan) (Adsule and Dan, 1979;Tepic et al, 2006).…”