RESULTS OF SOME ROMANIAN TOMATO AND EGGPLANT CULTIVARS GRAFTED ONTO INTERSPECIFIC (GENUS LYCOPERSICON) ROOTSTOCK

Abstract

This experience aims at identifying an optimal rootstock for Romanian tomato and eggplant cultivars and the influence on plant yield and growth. These vegetables (tomato and eggplant) are very important crops worldwide and in Romania. Tomato and eggplant plants are very sensitive to climatic fluctuations and can affect fruit yield. Grafting on species from the Solanaceae family is a practice that increases productivity, fruit quality, resistance to diseases and pests, abiotic factors. The work was conducted at the Horting Research Institute, Romania. The biological material used was different tomato and eggplant; two scions, Siriana F1 (tomato), Luiza variety (eggplant) and a rootstock, Emperador F1 (tomato). The Emperador rootstock and others are very used in worldwide for ecological and conventional cultures. By comparing the tomato and the eggplant yield of the researched grafted and non-grafted variants it has been shown that grafted cultivars have had very good values, being higher with 19.78% and 29.13% than at non-grafted plants. Following the studies undertaken in the research greenhouse period 2019-2020, a rootstock from genus Lycopersicum (Emperador) was tested and some results are in this scientific paper.