Abstract
Grafting is generally considered effective in ameliorating vegetable crop tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. The use of interspecific hybrid as rootstock for eggplant may represent a valid alternative approach to enhance eggplant performance. However, studies on the effects of different rootstocks on eggplant plant vigor, yield, and fruit quality traits often show conflicting results. Thus, an experiment was performed in two spring–summer growing seasons (2014 and 2015) by grafting eggplant ′Scarlatti′ F1 hybrid on two accessions of S. aethiopicum gr. gilo and on the interspecific hybrid S. melongena × S. aehtiopicum gr. gilo in comparison to the most common eggplant rootstock S. torvum. Results indicate that S. melongena × S. aethiopicum gr. gilo interspecific hybrid and S. torvum improved grafting success, plant vigor, early flowering and yield in ′Scarlatti′ F1 scion. All rootstocks tested did not negatively influence fruit apparent quality traits and fruit quality composition. Moreover, fruit glycoalkaloids content remained below the recommended threshold value. These findings suggest that the use of S. melongena × S. aethiopicum gr. gilo interspecific hybrid as rootstock may be a good alternative to the most commonly used S. torvum.
Highlights
Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is the world’s sixth most important vegetable after tomato, watermelon, onion, cabbage, and cucumber [1] and the most important Solanum crop native to theOld World [2]
Five rootstocks were evaluated, which included materials corresponding to the three species S. melongena (F1 hybrid 0 Scarlatti0 ), Solanum torvum, and Solanum aethiopicum gr. gilo, and one interspecific hybrid of S. melongena × S. aethiopicum gr. gilo, which is a double haploid line obtained from another culture of the tetraploid backcrosses from the somatic hybrid eggplant cv Dourga(+) S. aethiopicum gr. gilo accession 2 with a tetraploid plant of the eggplant line DR2 [13,18]
The interaction between rootstock and year was always not significant; for the sake of simplicity it was omitted from the tables and graphs
Summary
Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is the world’s sixth most important vegetable after tomato, watermelon, onion, cabbage, and cucumber [1] and the most important Solanum crop native to theOld World [2]. Soilborne diseases arising from continuous cropping are major problems that limit productivity in eggplant [4]. Improving soilborne resistance is one of the major scientific and economic challenges in eggplant. Grafting has been attempted as an effective mean to control soilborne diseases and abiotic stresses while simultaneously. Among the abiotic stresses that affect vegetable crops, salinity continues to be a main factor in reducing vegetable crop yield and profits in many arid and semi-arid regions. In this respect, Colla et al [5] demonstrated the effectiveness of grafting to improve salinity tolerance in cucumber. The use of specific rootstocks may offer many other advantages such as drought resistance [6] or heavy metal tolerance [7]
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