Fruit yield and quality of the grafted tomatoes under different drought stress conditions

Abstract

This study was evaluated the effect of different rootstocks, scion, and drought stress levels on yield, yield components and biochemical characteristics of four commercial tomato cultivars. In this regard, the combinations of three rootstocks (Dashtestan, Dorahe, and Mond) and four scions (Ra’ad, Matine, Super chief, and Rockstone) were investigated under three drought stress treatments, including 50, 75 and 100 % water requirement. After grafting, grafting success rate (percent) and some vegetative and reproductive parameters were measured. Considering the main effect of rootstock, the highest percentage of success in grafting unit (up to 50%) was obtained by the Dashtestan rootstock, while the lowest (40%) was obtained by the Mond rootstock. The results showed that drought stress and different rootstocks had significant effects on plant height (p<0.05), average fruit weight, flower and fruit numbers, protein and lycopene contents (p<0.01). On the other hand, there were significant interactions between drought stress, rootstock and scion in respect of average fruit weight, flower and fruit number, TSS, firmness, protein, lycopene, and superoxide dismutase(SOD). So that, in the conditions of the experiment, drought stress caused an increase in some parameters such as fruit TSS and firmness, the contents of carotenoids, flower number, protein content and activities of catalase(CAT), peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase enzymes. It could be concluded that the best combinations of rootstock and scion were Ra’ad and Super Chief scions, respectively on Dashtestan rootstock. So that, in many evaluated parameters these rootstock-scion combinations were better than others.