Effects of three commercial rootstocks on mineral nutrition, fruit yield, and quality of salinized tomato

Summary

Abstract Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum Mill. cv. Belladona F1) plants were either self‐rooted, self‐grafted, or grafted onto the commercial rootstocks “Beaufort”, “He‐Man”, and “Resistar” and grown in a recirculating hydroponic system. Three nutrient solutions differing in NaCl‐salinity level (2.5, 5.0, and 7.5 dS m–1, corresponding to 0.3, 22, and 45 mM NaCl) were combined with the five grafting treatments in a two‐factorial (3 × 5) experimental design. At the control NaCl level (0.3 mM), fruit yield was not influenced by any of the grafting treatments. However, at low (22 mM NaCl) and moderate (45 mM NaCl) salinity levels, the nongrafted and the self‐grafted plants gave significantly lower yields than the plants grafted onto He‐Man. The plants grafted onto the other two rootstocks gave hi