Effect of grafting and number of stems on plant growth, yield and fruit quality of soilless tomatoes

Summary

Vegetable grafting has grown considerably and has been a management alternative to overcome adverse soil cultivation conditions. However, many growers have used grafted tomato plants in substrate cultivation, claiming greater plant vigor, fruit yield, and longevity. Thus, the work objective is to evaluate the effect of grafting and the number of stems on plant growth, fruit yield, and quality of the Italian tomato, cultivated in a system of troughs filled with raw rice husk substrate. The experiments were conducted in southern Brazil, in the 2017/18 (long cycle) and 2019/20 (short cycle) crop seasons. The cleft grafting was used. The analyzed variables were the number of leaves, leaf area index, vegetative and fruit dry matter production, plant total dry matter, number of fruits, fruit yie