Effect of acclimation environments, grafting methods and rootstock RVTC-66 on the seedling development and production of tomato
Introduction
Weather variability, pests, and diseases are limiting factors on tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) production systems (Dias et al., 2019; Millones-Chanamé et al., 2019; Silva et al., 2019) and the use of health transplants is key to ensure potential yields (Rysin and Louws, 2015). While seedlings are the common transplants used by field tomato growers, grafted-transplants have been adopted as an alternative to ensure transplants overcome production challenges. Grafted-transplants consist on two distinct plants joined through tissue regeneration, allowing their development as a single plant (Lee et al., 2010). Consequently, a strategic use of scion-rootstock combinations can provide grafted seedlings with resistance to soil-related phytosanitary problems (Gilardi et al., 2013; Rivard et al., 2012; Zeist et al., 2019), enhance tolerance to salinity (Colla et al., 2010; Flores et al., 2010) and temperature variability (Venema et al., 2008), increase the efficiency of water and nutrient uptake (He et al., 2009; Kumar et al., 2015), promote physiological performance, maximize yield, and improve fruit quality (Flores et al., 2010; Zeist et al., 2017a).
Grafting success in the field starts with the healing process in the greenhouse. Healing in grafted-transplants depend on the affinity of the scion-rootstock combination (Xu et al., 2015), the acclimation environment (Johnson and Miles, 2011), and grafting method (Lee et al., 2010; Zeist et al., 2017a, 2017b). During the initial period of vascular connectivity between rootstock and scion, acclimation is important to prevent water loss and promote proper graft healing (Davis et al., 2008; Johnson and Miles, 2011; Lee et al., 2010). While grafting should be performed in the shade and protected from wind and sun (Oda, 2007), the rate of survival plants after grafting tends to be higher when plants are kept in environments with optimal temperature and relative humidity (RH) above 90% (Johnson and Miles, 2011). Suitable temperatures for grafted-transplanting healing in vegetables have been reported between 25 °C and 30 °C, which will ensure rapid healing due to an increased cell division and reduced water loss (Oda, 2007; Lee, 2007; Peil, 2003; Canizares and Goto, 2002; Johnson and Miles, 2011; Zeist et al., 2017b). Commercial nurseries often use temperature-controlled plant growth chambers to condition plants during the graft healing process (Johnson and Miles, 2011). However, growth chambers are expensive and few employed by growers, instead grafted plants are usually healed and hardened in small structures covered in plastic and placed within a greenhouse (Davis et al., 2008; Oda, 2007; Zeist et al., 2017b), also called healing chambers (Johnson and Miles, 2011). Healing chambers are an economical option for maintaining temperatures and RH within the optimal range (Johnson and Miles, 2011), but little to no information is available regarding the efficiency of healing chambers compared to plant growth chambers and their interaction with grafting methods.
As aforementioned, grafting method also plays an important role on the success of grafting (Lee, 2007; Zeist et al., 2017c). Particularly, there are several methods of grafting for tomatoes (Zeist et al., 2018), but the cleft and approach grafting methods have been reported as the most suitable (Zeist et al., 2017a, 2017b). The success of these grafting methods will depend on scion and rootstock grafted (Singh et al., 2017). The rootstock must provide resistance to an adverse factor while scion allows maintenance or increase productivity (Grieneisen et al., 2018). Rootstocks that increase tomato yields are constantly investigated and yields have been reported significantly higher for grafted tomato plants compared to the same ungrafted plants (Djidonou et al., 2013; Rysin and Louws, 2015; Zeist et al., 2017a). Contrarily, few are the studies reporting the diseases resistance by rootstocks of grafted plants, particularly, tomato resistance to bacterial wilt (Ralstonia solanacearum) on tomato, a disease that affect tomato fields worldwide (Zeist et al., 2018). The tomato rootstock RVTC-66 (S. lycopersicum var. cerasiforme, from the Vegetable Germplasm Bank of the State University of the Central-West) was reported resistant to bacterial wilt (Zeist et al., 2018). Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the grafting development and interaction of a commercial tomato cultivar (cv. Giuliana) grafted onto the S. lycopersicum var. cerasiforme genotype RVTC-66, and self-grafted, with four acclimation environments after grafting, and using the cleft and approach grafting methods.
Section snippets
Plant material
Plant material used in this study were the commercial processing cultivar Giuliana (S. lycopersicum, F1 hybrid from Sakata Seeds Sudamérica Ltda.) and the RVTC-66 genotype (S. lycopersicum var. cerasiforme, from the Vegetable Germplasm Bank of the State University of the Central-West). Giuliana was used as both a scion grafted on the rootstock RVTC-66 and self-grafted. Particularly, the cultivar Giuliana was used as rootstock in the control treatment, because under optimal conditions there is
Conditions in healing chamber
During the acclimation period of Giuliana tomato cultivar grafted in the healing chamber, the Tave was 23.2 °C ± 0.28 and RH averaged 86.18% ± 0.85 (Fig. 1). This Tave and RH are considered favorable in the grafting process. While high RH (>85%) prevents graft dehydration, temperatures around 22 °C have been reported to favor the healing process (Zeist et al., 2017b). Particularly, the cover with ultraviolet transparent film and an internal water slide from 0.02 to 0.04 m contribute to the high
Conclusions
Four acclimation environments and two grafting methods were evaluated for the success of the grafting of a commercial tomato cultivar (cv. Giuliana) grafted onto the S. lycopersicum var. cerasiforme genotype RVTC-66, and its self-grafting. Results demonstrated that acclimation environments after grafting and grafting methods interacted to affect the success of the grafting. Particularly, the plant growth chamber with temperature of 25/20 °C (day/night) and the healing chamber with mean
CRediT authorship contribution statement
André Ricardo Zeist: Writing - review & editing. Juliano Tadeu Vilela de Resende: Conceptualization, Project administration. Daniel Suek Zanin: Investigation, Writing - original draft. Andre Luiz Biscaia Ribeiro da Silva: Conceptualization, Writing - review & editing. Amanda Carvalho Perrud: Investigation, Formal analysis, Visualization. Guilherme Andreucci Bueno: Investigation, Visualization. José Henrique Verhalem Arantes: Investigation, Visualization. Danilo Pezzoto de Lima: Investigation,
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that have no financial or other competing conflicts of interest.
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