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Tomato grafting has proven to mitigate some soil-borne diseases and abiotic stresses as well as
improve plant growth, yield and fruit quality. However, in Tanzania the graft compatibility between
eggplant rootstocks and hybrid tomato cultivars has not yet been explored. Therefore, the objective
of this study was to evaluate graft compatibility between eggplant rootstocks and hybrid tomato
cultivars grown in Tanzania. The study was conducted at Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA)
Morogoro, Tanzania and the experiment was laid out in a Complete Randomized Design with
three replications. Hybrid tomato cv. Assila and Monica were each cleft-grafted onto eggplant
EG190, EG195 and EG203 rootstocks, healed for six days in a healing chambers, hardened for
seven days under a shade of 30% and later transplanted in the open field. Data were subjected to
Analysis of Variance using GenStat v.14 statistical package (VSN International, UK) and treatment
means were separated based on Tukey’s Test at P≤0.05. Results reveal that grafting eggplant
EG190, EG195 and EG203 rootstocks with hybrid tomato cultivars significantly led to partial
incompatibility based on higher incidence of adventitious roots at the graft union (p=0.001), plant
wilting (p=0.001) and death (p=0.001) after transplanting in the field. Similarly, grafting these
eggplant rootstocks significantly reduced plant height (p=0.001) and stem diameter (p=0.001)
of tomato cv. Assila and Monica in comparison to ungrafted controls. Conversely, grafting these
eggplant rootstocks significantly advanced flowering (p=0.008) and fruit harvest (p=0.001) of
tomato cv. Assila and Monica compared to ungrafted controls. Further studies are required to
determine rootstocks that are vigorous enough to carry the scions of hybrid tomato cultivars for
improved graft compatibility and plant growth. |
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