Abstract:

The paper aims to study the effect of seedling age of rootstock on the growth and yield of grafted tomato. Taking ‘Jinpeng rootstock No.1’ as rootstock with 4-6 leaves, and ‘Jinpeng No.8’ as scion with 3-5 leaves, the effects of different ages of rootstock and scion on graft survival rate, growth index, leaf pigment content, yield and fruit quality of grafted tomato were analyzed by two factor completely random design, and the comprehensive appreciation method was used to evaluate the combination. The results showed that the age of rootstock and scion all affected the healing, survival, growth, yield and quality of grafted tomato, and the interaction was significant. When the age of scion and rootstock was similar, and the survival rate of grafting was higher. The combination of ‘scion 4/ rootstock 4’ had higher grafting survival rate. The effects of rootstock age on the growth of grafted tomato, leaf pigment content and fruit yield were significant, and the scion age had significant effect on the quality. Grafted tomato with older rootstocks had thicker stem and developed root systems, the whole plant dry matter quality and yield also increased significantly. We comprehensively evaluated the graft survival rate, growth, yield and fruit quality of the grafted tomato and found that the grafted tomato plant with 3-4 leaves of scion and 6 leaves of rootstock had strong growth and significant improvement of yield and fruit quality, and the method could be promoted as tomato grafting suitable for seedling age.

Key words: tomato, grafting, rootstock-scion age, growth, yield