Development, production and quality of tomato grafted in cherry tomato introductions

Resumo

Currently, the tomato is one of the most cultivated crops with the highest economic value, increasing its demand and thus its expansion, production and trade. The tomato crop is susceptible to attack by pathogens with devastating consequences in lower yields ranging from 50 to 100%; for this reason, new production methods are proposed, such as the grafting in wild rootstocks, where there is  high genetic variability, finding there some genes responsible for resistance to fungi, bacteria, viruses and nematodes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of grafting of commercial materials of tomato in genotypes of cherry tomato on yield and fruit quality. The experimental design was completely randomized blocks (CRB) with four blocks, whose experimental unit was made up of four plants, planted at 0.9 m between lanes (canals), 0.30 m between double rows and 0.4 m between plants. The treatments were composed by the combination of the following factors: three promising patterns (IAC391, IAC426 and LA2076), two commercial crowns (Calima and Torrano) and two methods of grafting (cleft and side) followed by the two ungrafted commercial controls. Yield components, soluble solids content, percentage of fruit quality and average fruit weight were evaluated. IAC391 was the most promising rootstock, reaching productions similar to those of the controls, followed by the grafting method type barb, reaching a percentage of 98.3%, and the commercial crown Torrano was noted for achieving the highest yields.