The effects of rootstock to improve melon growth and physiological responses in salt stress

A study was carried out to investigate growth and physiological responses of melon grafted onto either salt-tolerant or sensitive rootstock, two tolerant (Mln-9 and Mln-28) and one sensitive (CU-40) melon genotypes were either self-grafted or reciprocally grafted and cultivated under salt or control conditions. The grafted plants were grown under 50 mM NaCl in greenhouse open soilless culture system. The results clearly indicate that grafting improved the salt-sensitive melon growing in salt stress. The tolerant melon rootstocks increased the plant growth, fruit weight and fruit dry matter, controlled photosynthesis parameters and decreased Na and Cl transport to the shoot under salt-stress compared to the salt-sensitive genotype. Probable potential was observed to focus on the tolerant melons to be the melon rootstock for saline conditions for future works.