Jm. Ruiz et al., LEAF-MACRONUTRIENT CONTENT AND YIELD IN GRAFTED MELON PLANTS - A MODEL TO EVALUATE THE INFLUENCE OF ROOTSTOCK GENOTYPE, Scientia horticulturae, 71(3-4), 1997, pp. 227-234
The melon (Cucumis melo L.) cultivars Yuma and Gallicum were grafted o
nto three rootstocks of Cucurbita maxima: Shintoza, RS-841 and Kamel.
The two melon varieties left ungrafted were used as control. The plant
s were grown under controlled conditions and fertilized constantly wit
h both macro- and micronutrients. The total content of macronutrients
(N, P, S, K, Na, Ca and Mg) and yield were determined in the aerial po
rtion of both the control and grafted plants. A model was developed to
determine the influence of the different rootstocks on the parameters
analyzed, based on the differences between the control and grafted pl
ants. Our results show that the use of the different rootstock genotyp
es causes little change in the leaf content of macronutrients, princip
ally in N and Na. On the contrary, root genotype determined the yield.
Finally, we found a strong relationship between the variations in fol
iar concentrations of N and Na and yield differences in grafted plants
. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.