Evaluation of the Genebank Germplasm on Suitability for Use as Rootstock in Green Agriculture

Abstract

The constantly increasing protected cultivation crop yield due to raised quantity of fertilizers, various stimulants, and pesticides leads to a decrease in fruit quality in terms of food safety. Vegetable crops grafting is considered one of the effective and environmentally friendly technologies for increasing qualitative and quantitate particularities of tomatoes and making plants suitable for usage in green agriculture systems. Grafted plants are provided with vigorous roots which contribute to high yield, fruit quality improvement, and high resistance against pests and diseases. Grafted plants’ efficiency directly depends on the selection of a proper rootstock with high genetic potential for crop improvement. Five tomato and five eggplant accessions from the World Vegetable Center have been evaluated for resistance to fusarium based on real-time PCR diagnostics.  Tomato LO6176, LO6193, and eggplant VI045276, VI0454196 accessions have been selected as promising rootstocks according to their economically valuable traits. A phytosanitary assessment of accessions has made it possible to suggest the most disease-resistant accessions for use as rootstock for tomato vegetative grafting. The tomato grafted plants assessment per a complex of agronomic characters has shown advantages of using eggplant rootstocks compared with tomato rootstocks.