Graft Compatibility Studies in Interspecific Tomato-Potato Grafts

Abstract

An inter-specific tomato-potato graft study was undertaken in a naturally ventilated quonset polyhouse at Palampur during the autumn and winter seasons 2015. The treatments comprised of combination of two tomato hybrids [Avtar-7711 (S₁) and GS-600 (S₂)] as scions, three potato cultivars viz. Kufri Himsona (V₁), Kufri Himalini (V₂) and Kufri Giriraj (V₃) as rootstocks and two grafting methods viz. tongue grafting (G₁) and cleft grafting (G₂). GS-600 tongue grafted on Kufri Himalini (V₂G₁S₂) resulted in maximum survival of grafted plants (93.25%) as well as grafting success rate (81.68%). Kufri Himalini (V₂) was found to be the best rootstock for tomato scions which gave 2 maximum survival of grafted plants (87.89%) as well as grafting success rate (76.59%). Cleft grafting (G₂) resulted in maximum survival of grafted plants (84.13%) and grafting success rate (72.95%). Tomato scion GS-600 (S₂) was found to be the best scion for potato rootstocks which resulted in a significantly higher survival of grafted plants (85.72%) and grafting success rate (73.85%) as well. Kufri Himalini+GS- 600 was the best rootstock-scion combination giving maximum survival of grafted plants and grafting success rate irrespective of the grafting methods used. It is also concluded from the study that irrespective of the rootstocks and grafting methods employed, scion GS-600 (S₂ always had better survival in grafted plants and a significantly higher grafting success rate at least for the three best performing treatments and grafting tomato on potato plants in compatible combinations had a significant impact on their survival.