Production and growth of tomato Paron cultivar grafted in different rootstocks

Abstract

Grafting in tomato plants is a practice which has had growing importance in order to overcome
problems with pathogens, soil salinity, excess or lack of water, planting in colder periods, among others. The aim of this study was to evaluate the yield and growth of tomato Paron cultivar when grafted in rootstocks with different agronomic specificities, grown in soils free from the above-mentioned problems in order to analyze the
effect of the grafting and the rootstock in the evaluated characteristics. The experiment was carried out from September 2006 to March 2007 in protected cultivation in São Miguel, São Paulo state, Brazil. The experimental design was randomized complete blocks with nine treatments (plants grafted in eight rootstocks and the ungrafted
one) and four replications. The evaluation involved the number and weight of total fruits, the weight of the
commercial production, the number of fruits bigger than 70mm, loss of production and length of internodes. The grafting did not interfere with the production or quality of the fruits, but caused shortening of the internodes
in the copa cultivar.