Effects of Mutual Grafting on Fruit Quality in Post-grafting generation of Two Genotypes Cherry Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum)

Vegetable grafting is essential for managing diseases, abiotic stress tolerance, increasing yields, improving fruit quality, crop adaptation, and practicing sustainable agriculture.

Red cherry tomatoes ('Ying 5–5-1') and yellow cherry tomatoes ('RTY-3–2') were grafted to create red scion and rootstocks and yellow scion and rootstocks, respectively, in a pot experiment.

The grafted offspring's sprout biomass varied, indicating either accelerated or constrained plant growth. While the offspring of yellow scion and rootstock had less shoot biomass, the fruit biomass of red scion and rootstock dramatically increased by 86.0% and 86.4%, respectively. Grafting enhanced fruit hardness but did not affect tomato aesthetic qualities. Red scion contained more soluble solids, sugar-to-acid ratio, soluble protein, and vitamin C. Roots had the highest selenium level, followed by leaf, stem, and fruit. The grafted offspring had a lower selenium content than genuine offspring.

Different grafting methods have varying effects on the intrinsic quality of fruits, with the red scion treatment having the most significant impact. And provides new insights and directions for the study of grafting on cherry tomato fruit quality in the future.