Abstract
Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) grafting has emerged as a promising biological management approach aimed at increasing tolerance to abiotic stressors, such as unfavorable environmental conditions. These conditions include environments that are too cold, wet, or dry, have soil nutrient deficiency or toxicity and soil or irrigation water salinity. Studies to date indicate that fruit yield and quality may be positively or negatively affected depending on rootstock-scion combination and growing environment. Growers need information regarding the general effect of rootstocks, as well as specific scion-rootstock interactions on fruit maturity and quality so they can select combinations best suited for their environment. This review summarizes the literature on watermelon grafting with a focus on abiotic stress tolerance and fruit maturity and quality with specific reference to hollow heart and hard seed formation, flesh firmness, total soluble solids, and lycopene content.
Highlights
Grafting watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) onto disease resistant rootstock can minimize the problems associated with soil-borne diseases, such as Fusarium wilt and Verticillium wilt, as well as infection by root nematodes (Meloidogyne incognita) [1,2]
While fruit quality attributes from grafted plants have generally been found to be consistent with or slightly improved compared to nongrafted plants, results appear to be specific to rootstock-scion combinations under particular environmental conditions [30,31,32,33,34,35]
These results demonstrate that lycopene content in grafted watermelon fruit is a rootstock-scion combination dependent trait
Summary
Grafting watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) onto disease resistant rootstock can minimize the problems associated with soil-borne diseases, such as Fusarium wilt (caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. niveum) and Verticillium wilt (caused by Verticillium dahliae), as well as infection by root nematodes (Meloidogyne incognita) [1,2]. The root architecture of selected rootstocks enables better performance against abiotic stress factors through improved uptake of water and macro/micronutrients [5,8,9,10,11]. These recent advances in the understanding of rootstock-mediated effects on scion performance have broadened the application of grafting for the cultivation of watermelon under adverse environments. The effect of rootstocks, scion-rootstock interaction, and environmental conditions on the timing of fruit maturity is needed to ensure fruit quality from grafted watermelon is optimized. Determining an appropriate harvest time for grafted watermelon is essential to maintain yield and quality stability
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