Grafting tomato plant on tobacco plant and its effect on tomato plant yield and nicotine content

• Published in: Journal of the science of food and agriculture Vol. 89; no. 7; pp. 1122 - 1128
• Main Authors: Yasinok, Aysegul E, Sahin, Feride I, Eyidogan, Fusun, Kuru, Mustafa, Haberal, Mehmet
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 01.05.2009; Wiley; John Wiley and Sons, Limited
• Subjects: Agricultural production; Biological and medical sciences; crop yield; Effects; flowering; flowers; Food industries; Food science; Fruit and vegetable industries; fruiting; fruits (plant anatomy); Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; grafting; grafting (plants); Lycopersicon esculentum; Nicotiana; Nicotiana tabacum; Nicotine; phenology; plant growth; Prunus; Solanaceae; Solanum; Solanum lycopersicum var. lycopersicum; stress; Tobacco; tomato; Tomatoes; Tobacco; Vegetables; Dicotyledones; Angiospermae; grafting; Spermatophyta; Yield; Solanaceae; Tomato; Stress; Nicotine
• ISSN: 0022-5142; 1097-0010
• DOI: 10.1002/jsfa.3555

BACKGROUND: Two different tomato scions, cv. Elazig and cv. Sweet (cherry) (Solanum lycopersicum L.) were self-grafted and grafted onto tobacco root stock (Nicotiana tobacum L.). Then, grafted tomato plants were evaluated in terms of flower and fruit yield. Tobacco-grafted tomato plant fruits were also evaluated for nicotine content.RESULTS: Tobacco grafting had a positive effect on the tomato plant cultivation performance; the onset of flowering was almost 15 days earlier and the tomato flower and fruit yields increased in both tomato cultivars. Tobacco grafting resulted in 5.0% and 30.1% increase in total fruit weight for cv. Sweet and cv. Elazig, respectively. Because the level of nicotine was within acceptable ranges, tobacco-grafted tomato fruits were considered to be safe for consumption. Self-grafted tomato cultivars also had flowering time onsets almost 11 days earlier. However, self-grafting caused 6.0% and 7.6% less total fruit yield per cv. Sweet and cv. Elazig, respectively.CONCLUSION: In conclusion, our results show that tomato-tobacco grafting is a novel and promising technique for improvement of not only tomato plant performance and yield, but also that it can be employed to various tomato varieties.