Phytochemical characteristics of grafted watermelon on different bottle gourds (Lagenaria siceraria) collected from Mediterranean region of Turkey

Abstract

IntroductionGrafting is widely used in watermelon production to control soil-borne diseases such as Fusarium wilt (Yetisir and Sari 2003;Davis et al. 2008), to increase yield (Lee 1994;Oda 1995;Lee and Oda 2003), and to promote the mineral nutrition uptake (Pulgar et al. 2000), but the objectives of grafting have increased significantly over the years. For instance, grafting has been used to improve resistance against low (Bulder et al. 1990) and high (Rivero et al. 2003) temperatures, to improve resistance against iron chlorosis in calcareous soils (Romero et al. 1997), to improve the salinity tolerance of plants (Yetisir and Uygur 2010), to enhance nutrient absorption (Ruiz et al. 1997), and to improve water use (Cohen and Naor 2002). Bottle gourds have also been used routinely as a source of rootstock for watermelons and other cucurbit crops in some Asian and European countries (Lee and Oda 2003). Lagenaria siceraria is one of the gourd species used as rootstock for watermelon and it shows a high compatibility rate with watermelon (Lee 1994;Oda 1995;Yetisir and Sari 2003). Turkey has a rich genetic diversity of L. siceraria. In a previous study, 210 L. siceraria genotypes from ecologically different regions of Turkey were collected and evaluated for rootstock potential, and it was found that Turkish L. siceraria germplasm has powerful rootstock potential for watermelon against Fusarium wilt and is a good resource for rootstock breeding programs (Yetişir et al. 2007). We previously demonstrated that grafted watermelon plants on bottle gourd rootstocks had an increase in total yield and plant growth parameters as compared to the ungrafted control plants (Karaca et al. 2012). These rootstocks with vigorous root systems also showed superior tolerance to serious soil-borne diseases such as those caused by Fusarium (Yetışır et al. 2003). The rootstocks tested in this study also produced larger fruit with a thicker rind and darker fruit flesh color than the control plants ( Karaca et al. 2012).Watermelon quality is greatly affected by grafting (Yetisir and Sari 2003; Yetışır et al. 2003;Davis and Perkins-Veazie 2005). There are many conflicting reports on changes in fruit quality due to grafting. The differences in reported results may be due in part to different production environments, type of rootstock, interactions between specific rootstocks and scions, and harvest date (Davis et al. 2008). In some studies, grafted watermelon fruits had lower (

Fruit quality assessment of watermelons grafted onto citron melon rootstock

“…Other clearly negative effects have been reported, such as more fibrous flesh, poor color and taste, increased number of yellowish bands and the occurrence of hollow heart . Changes in mineral composition, sugars, ascorbic acid, citrulline or lycopene content also occur . The impact of grafting on fruit aroma has been studied to a lesser degree, although recent reports show an increase in the concentrations of certain aldehyde volatile compounds in watermelon fruits from plants grafted onto interspecific Cucurbita hybrids and Lagenaria rootstocks .…”

Rootstock and Plastic Mulch Effect on Watermelon Flowering and Fruit Maturity in a Verticillium dahliae–Infested Field

“…Similarly, for lycopene content, grafted watermelon fruit showed increased content compared with nongrafted fruit in some studies (Davis et al, 2008;Proietti et al, 2008), while there was no difference in other studies (Bruton et al, 2009;Dabirian et al, 2017;Soteriou and Kyriacou, 2014;Wimer et al, 2015). Further, a decrease in lycopene content has been reported with certain rootstock-scion combinations involving L. siceraria and C. argyrosperma (Candir et al, 2013;Davis and Perkins-Veazie, 2005). For total soluble solids (TSS), rootstock-scion combination can affect results (Davis et al, 2008;Flores et al, 2010;Proietti et al, 2008).…”

“…For total soluble solids (TSS), rootstock-scion combination can affect results (Davis et al, 2008;Flores et al, 2010;Proietti et al, 2008). Most studies did not find a significant effect in TSS for grafted watermelon with bottle gourd rootstocks (Alan et al, 2007;Alexopoulos et al, 2007;Candir et al, 2013;, however, 0.5% to 1.0% reduction in TSS was reported for grafted compared with nongrafted watermelon treatments in a few studies (Bruton et al, 2009;Davis and Perkins-Veazie, 2005;Kyriacou and Soteriou, 2015;Rouphael et al, 2010). Davis and Perkins-Veazie (2005) further reported that TSS was reduced only in the grafted diploid watermelon treatment.…”

Variation in Sugar, Organic Acid and Volatile Flavor Compounds of Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) Grafted on Different Rootstocks at Different Harvest Time

“…Water soluble dry matter was ranged from 9.70 to 11.13°brix for non-grafted plants and 9.28 to 10.20°brix for grafted plants. Çandır et al [7] found that sugar and organic acid composition of 'Crimson Tide' grafted on different rootstocks ranged for: glucose (1.95-3.14%), fructose (2.69-3.79%), sucrose (1.58-4.69%) as sugar and malic (0.327-0.457%), citric (0.042-0.127%) as organic acid components. There have been some studies on flavour compounds of non-grafted watermelons [8][9][10][11][12][13] that determined aldehyde, alcohol, ketone, furan compounds as main flavour compounds for watermelon.…”