Effect of acclimation environments, grafting methods and rootstock RVTC-66 on the seedling development and production of tomato

Abstract

Grafting is a common practice used in tomato to control soil pathogen problems, confer tolerance against abiotic stresses and, when possible, increase yield. The objective of this study was to evaluate the grafting development and interaction of a commercial tomato cultivar (cv. Giuliana) grafted onto the S. lycopersicum var. cerasiforme genotype RVTC-66, and self-grafted, with four acclimation environments after grafting (three plant growth chambers with 23/18, 25/20 and 28/23 °C in day/night; and a healing chamber with mean temperature of 23.2 °C ± 0.28), and using the cleft and approach grafting methods. Additionally, the effect of the RVTC-66 rootstock using both grafting methods on the photosynthetic efficiency and production of Giuliana cultivar grafted was also evaluated. Survival of grafted plants, plant height, number of leaves, foliar area, stem dry matter and leaf dry matter had significant interaction between acclimation environment and grafting methods. The plant growth chamber (25/20 °C) and healing chamber (mean 23.2 °C) favored the healing of the grafted (with survival of grafted of > 97.50%) and seedling development. Approach grafting method was favorable only to the plant growth chamber with temperatures of 25/20 and 28/23 °C (day/night). The cleft grafting method combined with the acclimation of seedlings in healing chamber (mean 23.2 °C) improved survival and development of seedling shoots. Grafting methods had no influence in photosynthetic efficiency and production of Giuliana tomato cultivar grafted onto RVTC-66. In contrast, the RVTC-66 rootstock provided an increase in seedling root development, photosynthetic efficiency and fruit production of grafted tomato plants.