Morphological changes in the compatible grafts of tomato cv. PKM 1 with different solanaceous rootstocks

Abstract

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicon) is a most popular and widely grown vegetable crop in the world. The varied climatic conditions leading to increased biotic and abiotic stresses will affect the normal vegetative, flowering and reproductive stages and hence the yield of the crop. Grafting is a promising tool practiced in several vegetables like tomato, brinjal, watermelon to control the predominance of biotic and abiotic stresses. As tomato is widely grown vegetable, a study was proposed to understand the morphology of the compatible graft of tomato cv. PKM 1 with different solanaceous rootstocks. The different solanaceous rootstocks used for the graft were tomato genotypes of Solanum lycopersicum (LE 523, LE 828 & LE 102), Solanum torvum, Solanum aculeatissimum and Solanum sisymbriifolium. The cleft grafting method was followed and the parameters like graft success percentage, number of leaves, leaf area, shoot length and shoot diameter were recorded after 30 days of grafting. The compatible rootstock and scion can be assessed based on the survival rate of grafted plants and vegetative growth of the scion. The tomato grafts of Solanum torvum * PKM 1 showed high graft success percentage of 95% whereas LE 102 * PKM 1 had least graft success percentage of 9.34%. The graft, LE 828 * PKM 1 showed increased shoot length (25.62cm), leaf area (65.51cm2), number of leaves (4.6) and shoot diameter (3.56mm) compared to other successful grafts. The successful grafts with increased growth may due to regeneration of vascular bundles across the graft interface leading to increased water and nutrient flow through the graft union.