Impact of grafting on sensory profile of tomato landraces in conventional and organic management systems

Abstract

Tomato landrace producers are adopting grafting technology to overcome agronomic deficiencies and increase plant yields. Landraces are valued for their higher organoleptic quality, so it is important to assess the impact of grafting on their sensory profile. We studied the influence of ‘Beaufort’ rootstock on agronomic, morphologic, and sensory traits using two landraces (‘Mando’ and ‘Montgri’) and one commercial cultivar (‘Egara’) as scions in two extreme management systems for tomato cultivation: conventional/greenhouse and organic/open field. Panel sensory analysis found that grafting onto ‘Beaufort’ had a negative effect on sensory attributes, reducing sweetness, acidity, and intensity of flavor in the organic system and sweetness and intensity of flavor in the conventional system. In conventional management, grafting also modified some aspects of fruit appearance. In the conventional system, grafting significantly increased yield in all the genotypes (mean increase, 52%). By contrast, in the organic system, grafting increased yield only in the ‘Mando’ landrace (mean increase, 62.3%). As many genotype × grafting interactions affecting many important commercial traits occurred in both management systems, specific studies with different rootstock-scion combinations are highly recommended before adopting this technique for producing landraces with high sensory quality.