Growth and conversion of solar energy of grafted tomato plants under protected cultivation

Abstract

The grafting technique favors cultivation tomato under conditions environment adverse, being the effects on the physiology of scarce plants. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the growth and solar energy conversion efficiency in grafted tomato and not grafted in greenhouse. The grafting was performed by grafting of cleft and the treatments consisted of tomato plants grafted on hybrid Kaguemusha® and not grafted. The samples for growth analysis were performed at intervals of fourteen days after transplanting (DAT) by the end of the crop cycle. At each harvest, plants were separated into organs, being determined to total dry matter (Wt), rates of dry matter production (Ct) and relative growth (Rw), net assimilation (Ea), leaf area index (L), growth rate, leaf area (Ca), relative growth of leaf area (Ra), leaf area ratio (Fa), leaf weight (Fw), specific leaf area (Sa), conversion efficiency solar energy (?) and assimilation rate of fruit (Efr). From the analysis of data growth, the plants grafted on the hybrid Kaguemusha® had higher Wt, Ct, Rw, Ea and ? compared to non-grafted that showed a high Fa and Fw. Therefore, the stress caused by grafting did not affect the growth at the end of the development cycle of tomato plants, being important feature to keep the crop yield.