Grafting of Tomato (Solanum Lycopersicum L.) onto Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.): Harvesting Double Crops from a Single Plant
Ngawang, Ratu Kinley, Ganja Singh Rai
https://doi.org/10.55925/btagr.24.7107
Rapid Urbanization and industrialization have been overtaking land for food production at the global level. Further, climate change has necessitated the modification of the existing food production system to adapt the changing environmental situations. Grafting is a rapid and economical solution to improving the yield in Solanaceous vegetables. In this study, the effects of grafting tomato (cv. Garv) on potato (cv. Desiree) rootstock were evaluated for yield of tomato and potato in comparison to non-grafted tomato and non-grafted potato plants. The results showed that the yield of tomato was significantly higher in non-grafted tomato (11.05 t/ha) and tomato grafted on potato with decapitation of potato shoots (4.07 t/ha) compared to that of tomato grafted on potato without decapitation of potato shoots (0.94 t/ha). On the other hand, the yields of non-grafted potato (1.44 t/ha) and tomato grafted on potato without decapitation of potato shoots (1.00 t/ha) were statistically higher than that of tomato grafted on potato with the decapitation of potato shoots. There were no statistical differences between the treatments for dry matter content and Total Soluble Solutes (TSS) of tomato and potato. The yield of tomato of the grafted pomato was negatively correlated to the yield of potato rootstock, but it was not statistically different. The data from this study suggest grafting of tomato on potato with decapitation of potato shoots is recommended for obtaining higher yield of grafted tomato and without decapitation of potato shoots for higher yield of potato from grafted plants.
Keywords: Pomato; Grafting; Tomato; Potato; Double Crop