Graft Compatibility Studies for Resistance to Root Knot Nematode in Tomato Solanum lycopersicum L

Abstract

The present investigation entitled Graft Compatibility Studies for Resistance to Root-Knot Nematode in Tomato (SolanumlycopersicumL.) was carried out in four experiments conducted under field and laboratory conditions. The study on screening of wild and cultivated Solanum genotypes against root-knot nematode was accomplished in collaboration withAICRP Nematodes, SKUAST-Jammu, Chatha in three phases, namely, field survey, laboratory and screen house. Out of eleven wild and cultivated species of Solanum screened, wild Solanum species namely Solanumtorvum was found highly resistantto Meloidogyne incognita while Solanumxanthocarpum, S. indicum and S. khasianum werefound resistant.Punjab Raunak and SJCT-01 showed moderately resistant reaction.The sixgenotypes (highly resistant, resistant and moderately resistant) were usedfor graft compatibility studies as rootstocks. Eight genotype (varieties/hybrids) were evaluated for horticultural traits at the Experimental Research Farm-I of Division of Vegetable Science, SKUAST-Jammu, Chatha.On the basis of mean performance,ArkaSamrat and ArkaRakshak recorded the highest yield, maximum number of flower cluster per plant, flower per cluster and fruits per cluster as well as number of primary branches per plant and were selected as scionsfor the graft compatibility studies. newlineThe graft compatibility study was conducted in polyhouse of Experimental Research Farm-II, Division of Vegetable Science, Chatha with two tomato scionsviz.,ArkaSamrat and ArkaRakshak grafted onto six different rootstocks.Graft compatibility studies revealed that highest percentage of grafting success (100%) was recorded in graft combination ArkaSamrat on SJCT 01, ArkaSamrat on Punjab Raunak and ArkaRakshak on Punjab Raunak with 3.33, 4.00 and 4.33 days taken for healing of graft union respectively.Comparative performance of 12 different graft combinations along with non-grafted checks was evaluated at Experimental Research Farm-I of Division of Vegetable Science.The rootstocks viz., SJCT 01, Punjab Raunak an