An Approach to Determine the Good Seedling Quality of Grafted Tomatoes (Solanum Lycopersicum) Grown in Cylindrical Paper Pot Through the Relation Analysis between DQI and Short-Term Relative Growth Rate

Using cylindrical paper pot nursery method, three kinds of commercial tomatoes ‘Dafnis’, ‘DOTAERANG DIA’ and ‘Maescala’ were grafted onto a commercial rootstock ‘B blocking’. From 10 to 40 days after graft-take, growth traits of seedlings were investigated by 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0S treatments of standard nutrient solution(S) for seedling growth, and top to root ratio(TRR), compactness(CP) and Dickson Quality Index(DQI) were calculated. Two weeks after transplanting of the seedlings under three different night temperature targeting to 10, 15, and 25C, which were not precisely controlled, the relative growth rate (RGR) was investigated. The quantitative growth traits of grafted seedlings increased with increasing fertilizer concentration, and various range of seedling size could be produced. Compactness and DQI were significantly regressed (Adj R = 0.9480). Short-term RGR after transplanting was higher at 1.0S treatment of standard nutrient solution at the seedling age of 30 days and 40 days after grafttake(DAGT). DQI and RGR were significantly regressed linearly at respective fertigation strength. Specially the diminishing slope of RGR was lower at 1.0S fertigation strength with the increase of DQI than others. The results indicate that DQI could be applied as a quality index of grafted tomato seedlings and the relation analysis between DQI and short-term RGR also could be used to determine the good quality seedlings of grafted tomato grown in cylindrical paper pot. Additional key words : raising seedling, determination, criteria, performance, absolute growth rate