Effects of Grafting on Eggplants Grown under Salinity Stress in Terms of Chlorophyll Content, Leaf Water Potential and Some Fruit Characteristics

Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.); the third most important vegetable crop after potato and tomato;is relatively salt sensitive. Grafting over tolerant rootstocks proved to be an effective tool, among others, to alleviate negative effects of salinity upon vegetable crops by increasing plants tolerance against salinity. In this study, different rootstock/scion eggplant combinations were obtained as follow; Five commercial rootstocks (AGR 703 (S. aethiopicum), Vista, Köksal F1, Yula F1 (S. incanum x S. melongenahybrids) and Hawk (S. torvum)), in addition to two Turkish genotypes Burdur and Mardin (S. melongena L.) were used as the rootstocks. For scion two cultivars were used (Artvin and Naomi F1). Self-grafted and non-grafted seedlings were used as control. İn total 18 combinations were obtained. Grafted plants where grown under two salinity treatments 1.8-2 dSm-1 (control) and 5-6 dSm-1 (stress) in pots under greenhouse conditions. Salinity treatment started when plants were at the flowering stage by adding NaCl to the nutriontion solution applied through drip irrigation system. NaCl was used as the salinity source by adding 8.76 Kg NaCl (90 mM) to 3000 lit irrigation tank designated to plants group under stress. Plants in the stress treatment were irrigated with saline water every other day. Total yield, average fruit weight, leaf chlorophyll content,fruit total soluble solids (TSS) and titratable acidity (TA), fruit weight and diameter, fruit color and pH parameters were tested and the genotype x treatment interaction was found to be significant. Salinity had negative effects on the parametrers measured. In terms of average fruit diameter values, significant differences were found between treatment (salinity)and grafting combinations, in addition the difference between the treatments in terms of leaf water potential values was found to be significant. Naomi Fi genotype was found superior compared to Artvin genotype as a scion, while between rootstocks Köksal F1 and Vista F1 genotypes were found significantly superior among the other comercial genotypes used.