Effects of grafting in saline conditions

Grafting could be used as a strategy to increase tolerance of plants to salinity and to promote water use efficiency. In these experiments tomato cultivar 'Durinta' was grafted on two rootstocks, namely Beaufort and Heman and grown at two EC levels of nutrients solution (2 and 6 dS/m) comparing with ungrafted plants between the years 2004 and 2005. Plants were grown in plastic containers. The substrate was perlite and substrate volume was 6 liters per plant. The seedlings were transferred to the greenhouse on 24 March 2004 and 26 August 2004 in spring and autumn season productions respectively with a plant density of 3.48 plants per in. Irrigation timing was based on indoor integrated solar radiation level of 1.0 MJ.m(-2). The amount of nutrient solution was adjusted according to the ratio of drainwater/applied volume, which was kept approximately 30% in 2 dS/m and 40% in 6 dS/m. By the use of rootstocks, marketable yield increased in 6 dS/m compared with ungrafted plants. The average marketable yield increase in Beaufort and Heman was 47.5% and 24.3%, respectively. Also the average increase in water use efficiency was 46.5% with Beaufort and 24.4% with Heman.