Rootstocks combinations usage is a perspective method of increasing the productivity and quality of tomatoes using low-volume hydroponics method

Abstract

Tomato grafting has a considerable scientific and practical interest, because it promotes plant resistance to illnesses, pests, stress factors, improves nourishment conditions and as a result increases crop yields and contributes to the greening of cultivation. The study of this issue is actual for the indoor ground conditions, particularly, for growing in glass greenhouses using low-volume hydroponics method. Experiments for studying three indeterminate hybrids of tomatoes Torero F1, Barteza F1 and Merlice F1 with grafting on rootstocks Maxifort F1, TD-1 F1 і Emperador F1 were conducted in the “Venlo” type on Private Joint Stock Company «Сombinat «Teplychnyy» («Комбінат «Тепличний»). The main goal of the experiments was to find out the efficiency of varietal-rootstocks combinations on the inderterminate hybrids F1 tomato. Consequently, the usage of rootstocks promotes the increase in early yield in all options. Significantly higher yield compared to the plants that were not rootstocked during all the years of research, was gotten from the Toreto F1 hybrid on the TD-1 F1 rootstock (in general during 3 years 30,4 kilograms per square meter), from Merlice F1 hybrid on Emperador F1 (31 kilogram per square meter). Mathematically significant difference in early yield between the studied cultivar-rootstock combinations was not found. The usage of the rootstocks also improves biochemical indicators, particularly, contributes to the increasing the dry matter content in the fruits of all hybrids by 0.1-0.8%. Emperador F1 rootstock causes an increase in the total sugar content in tomatoes by 0.3-0.5% and ascorbic acid by 1-4.7% for all studied rootstocks. It is recommended to use such grafting options as Torero F1 to TDß1 F1; Barteza F1 to Emperador F1; Merlice F1 to Emperador F1 with a view to increasing the share of early yield (10th July) in modern block hydroponic winter greenhouses of the “Venlo” type at the level of 30,4-31,0 kilograms per square meter with high biochemical indicators of fruits.