Abstract
ABSTRACT Currently, tomato is one of the most cultivated crops worldwide, with the highest economic value, increasing its demand and, thus, its expansion, production, and trade. The tomato crop is susceptible to attack of pathogens with devastating consequences on the decline in yields from 50 to 100%. For this reason, new production methods are proposed such as grafting in wild rootstocks, which have high genetic variability and genes responsible for resistance to fungi, bacteria, viruses, and nematodes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of grafting commercial tomato cultivars onto cherry tomato genotypes on yield and fruit quality. The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design with four replications. The experimental unit consisted of four plants. spaced at 0.9 m between rows (channels), 0.30 m between double rows, and 0.4 m between plants. The treatments consisted of the combination of the following factors: three promising rootstocks (IAC391, IAC426, and LA2076), two commercial scions (Calima and Torrano), two grafting methods (cleft and splice), and two ungrafted commercial controls. Yield components, soluble solids content, percentage of fruit quality, and average fruit weight were evaluated. IAC391 was the most promising rootstock, reaching productions similar to those of the controls. The cleft grafting method, reached a success rate of 98.3%. The commercial scion Torrano stood out for achieving the highest yields.
Highlights
According to FAO (2013), Colombia reported a harvested area of tomato of 16.844 ha-1 and, a production of 646.904 t, with an average yield of 38.4 t ha-1
Significant differences were found when analyzing the interaction with the grafting methods cleft and splice, denoting graft-take percentages higher than 80% for both methods, which is considered good for this species (Table 2)
Zeist et al (2017) evaluated different grafting methods in different solanaceous species and found that for mini-tomato rootstock 0224-53, RVTC 57 and RVTC 20, as well as wild species S. habrochaites var. hirsutum ‘PI-127826’, the approach method would be the best. They showed that the cleft method had the lowest graft-take percentage, which differs from the results of this study, since this method resulted in a higher grafttake percentage
Summary
According to FAO (2013), Colombia reported a harvested area of tomato of 16.844 ha-1 and, a production of 646.904 t, with an average yield of 38.4 t ha-1. In 2007, the Department of Caldas had a planted area of 1,106 ha-1 and yield of 47.8 t ha-1, taking a share in the domestic production of 12.77%. In 2013, this area decreased 633 ha-1, the yield to 32.4 t ha-1, and the share in the domestic production to 4.98%. These data show an average negative annual growth rate of 14.54% for yield (Agronet, 2016)
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