Effects of grafting on agro-morphological characteristics in eggplants grafted onto solanum torvum and interspecific hybrid rootstocks

Abstract

Grafting may cause changes in plant growth and morphology. These changes may affect the fruit appearance, earliness, and yield. In these respect, it is important to investigate whether there are changes in the scion due to grafting before the fruit formation phase. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of rootstocks on plant structure, stem, leaf and flower morphology, rootstock/scion compatibility and to investigate the effect of observation dates in different fruit-shaped scions. Two eggplant hybrids, Amadeo and BT Bildircin were used as scions and Solanum torvum (Hawk) and interspecific eggplant hybrid- "IEH" (Anafor) were used as rootstocks. In the study, grafting positively affected to plant height, stem diameters, number of leaves, growth habit, leaf color and anthocyanin coloration of stem depending on the rootstock/scion combination. However, grafting negatively affected the percentage of plant survival, flowering time and plantlet height. The maximum plant height was found in the "BT Bildircin / S. torvum" and "BT Bildircin/ IEH" combination with 81.14 and 77.30 cm, respectively. The highest stem diameter was found in "IEH" rootstock in both scions. Apart from these, rootstocks produced the upright plants compared to ungrafted ones. On the other hand, the most seedling losses and the latest flowering time were in the grafted S. torvum combinations in both scions. Consequently, positive effect of grafting depends primarily on chosen scion variety and then rootstock/scion combination. Also our study demostrates that interspecific eggplant hybrid rootstocks may be good alternative to S. torvum. In addition, observation dates and plant, stem, leaf and flower traits are important in revealing the effect of the grafting.