ISHS Acta Horticulturae 729: III Balkan Symposium on Vegetables and Potatoes
CONTROL OF FUSARIUM AND VERTICILLIUM WILT OF WATERMELON BY GRAFTING AND ITS EFFECT ON FRUIT YIELD AND QUALITY |
| Authors: | G. Paroussi, F. Bletsos, G.A. Bardas, J.A. Kouvelos, A. Klonari |
| Keywords: | grafting, Fusarium, Verticillium, watermelon |
| Abstract:
Grafting of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) on resistant rootstocks is an alternative method to methyl bromide for reducing infection by soil-borne pathogens Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. niveum and Verticillium dahliae. Watermelon seedlings, cv. ‘Crimson Sweet’, were grafted by hand on the commercial Cucurbitaceae rootstocks ‘Mammouth’, ‘Calago’, ‘Dako’, ‘Astra’ and ‘Max-2’. Non-grafted ‘Crimson Sweet’ plants were kept as positive controls. The experiment was carried out on soil fumigated with methyl bromide. Each treatment consisted of ten plants and was replicated three times. Inoculation was made by immersing the plants before transplanting in an inoculum’s suspension (a density of 106 conidia per millilitre), for each pathogen. The same number of grafted and non-grafted plants was transplanted without inoculation and kept as negative control. The assessment of disease severity was made on the basis of a phenotypic resistance scale from 1 to 4 according to leaf discoloration and wilting. At the end of the experiment the presence of each pathogen was certified by isolations from vascular discoloration areas. The non-grafted plants of ‘Crimson Sweet’ showed the highest degree of disease incidence, while the grafted plants on all the rootstocks tested showed low disease incidence. In addition, grafted plants on all the rootstocks were more vigorous with significant higher yields in comparison with the non-grafted plants. The grafted plants on ‘Mamouth’ were more vigorous and gave higher yield in comparison to all the other rootstocks and the non-grafted plants, in all treatments, either with or without inoculation. No significant difference was found in °Brix value of the fruits between grafted and non-grafted plants, except of the grafted plants on ‘Mamouth’. | |
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