Wind and light promote graft-take and growth of grafted tomato seedlings

The effects of the wind under conditions of high light intensity and high relative humidity on the take and growth of grafted tomato scions were investigated. Wind promoted dry matter production and accelerated the healing of the graft union under high light intensity and high relative humidity. Humidity widened the stomatal apertures under high light intensity without increasing the transpiration rate. Therefore, the promotion of graft-take was considered to be a result of increased photosynthetic rate, induced by increasing the stomatal conductance that was hastened by wind, high light intensity and high relative humidity. We also verified the effectiveness of a fabricated healing-acclimatization apparatus for making high quality grafted seedlings. A characteristic of this apparatus is to circulate the humidified air through the internal parts of the healing-acclimatization room with blowers. The graft unions knitted well under constant high light intensity during the healing and acclimatization period, so that the growth of seedlings was consequently promoted in this apparatus.