(255) Growth and Salt Tolerance of Grafted Hot Pepper Seedlings

Abstract

Use of grafted seedlings is a practical method to overcome salt accumulation, deterioration of physicochemical properties of soil, and accumulation of soil-borne pathogen that farmers, as well as commercial plug seedling producers, in Korea mainly adapted. Graft-take, subsequent growth, and quality characteristics of grafted hot pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) seedlings composed of three scions and 10 rootstocks were investigated. `Manita', `Chungyang', and `Nokkwang' were cultivars of scions used—they are the major hot pepper cultivars in Korea. The ten rootstock cultivars can be categorized into three groups: cultivars specially bred for rootstocks (`Konesian Hot', `PR-380', `R-Safe', and `Tantan'); cultivars recently bred in NHRI, Korea with the potential to be rootstocks (`Wonkwang1' and `Wonkwang2'); and cultivars originally bred for fruit harvest, but used as rootstocks due to their tolerance to soil-borne pathogens (`Kataguruma', `PR-Data', `PR-Gangza', and `PR-Power'). All the plants were treated with 5 mg·L-1 diniconazole solution 2 weeks after grafting and were soaked into 1.4% salt solution for 48 hours about 5 weeks after grafting. All the grafted seedlings showed feasible growth, including normal flowering and fruit set, and any symptoms of phytophthora blight and anthracnose were not found during 17-day-long experiment. Seedlings grafted onto `Tantan' rootstock showed stronger tolerance to high salt concentration than those grafted onto other rootstocks. Use of some, such as `Wongang 1', `PR-Data' and `Kataguruma', was alleviated the salt-induced growth inhibition.