Abstract
Grafting cucurbitaceous crops is an alternative for protection of plants in production systems with biotic or abiotic stress. The grafting cucumber improves the plant growth and development under adverse conditions, such as drought, high salt concentration and soil-borne pathogens. Lagenaria siceraria is a species with potential rootstocks in cucumber. Mexican L. siceraria accessions are less susceptible to damage caused by Meloidogyne incognita. The aim of this study was to evaluate two Mexican L. siceraria accessions (Lag 48 and Lag 53) and Forticuke F1(Numhems®) as rootstocks on plant growth and fruit quality of cucumber in soil infested with root-knot nematodes.Plant ungrafted was used as control. The results show that rootstocks increased plant height, leaves number and leaf area. Forticuke F1 and Lag 53 had a greater response than ungrafted plant. Thegrafting increased fruit weight in 25.3%, 15.2% and 14.6% with Forticuke F1, Lag 53 and Lag 48,respectively. Internal firmness of the fruits increased by 56.4% in Forticuke F1, 12.6% in Lag 53 and 2.2% in Lag 48 with respect to ungrafted plants. Length, diameter, external firmness and Brix degrees of fruit were not modified by rootstock effect. The use of L. siceraria as rootstock is an alternative to improvement plant growth and fruit quality of cucumber in soil infested with root-knot nematodes.
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