Morphological characterization of eggplant rootstock types registered in Turkey and comparison of rootstock-scion performance

In recent years, due to the intensive use of agricultural lands, soil-borne diseases and pests have been encountered more. Accordingly, the use of grafted seedlings is increasing day by day. Rootstocks of different botanical classes can be used in grafted eggplant cultivation. However, due to the fact that eggplant rootstocks are not recognized, they are one of the rare species that do not have test guidelines in the UPOV, and the number of rootstocks entering the market is increasing day by day, difficulties are experienced in the selection of rootstock/scion combinations. In addition, there are different opinions about the effect of rootstocks on scion varieties. In the study, it was aimed to determine the changes caused by rootstocks in different botanical classes, to identify the eggplant rootstocks used in grafted eggplant cultivation, to determine the minimum criteria that can be used to determine the differences between them and to determine the effect of the observation dates. In this context, first of all, the characteristics of 11 eggplant rootstocks were determined, and the differences between rootstocks and the minimum characteristics that could be used in cultivar differentiation were determined. In addition, in the second part of the study, 4 different types of scion were grafted on 3 different rootstocks and the compatibility of rootstock/scion combinations and the morphological effects of the rootstocks on the scion were determined. In the results of study; the fruit characteristics of S. torvum, which could not be determined by many countries due to its climatic characteristics, were determined by comparing it with other rootstocks. In addition, it has been determined that grafting does not significantly affect every feature of the fruit, rootstocks react differently to the grafting in each feature of each variety, but generally, depending on the rootstock/scion combination, the grafting has a positive effect on fruit morphology, especially in the long vegetation period.