Grafting Improves Fruit Yield of Cucumber Plants Grown under Combined Heat and Soil Salinity Stresses

Horticulturae

Naglaa Taha¹  El-Samahy Hamed²  Farouk El-Aidy³  Mohamed Rakha³  Yousry Bayoumi³  Emad Abd-Alkarim³  Jaime Prohens⁴  Hassan El-Ramady⁵ 

[1] Agriculture Research Center, Plant Pathology Research Institute, Giza 12619, Egypt;Agriculture Research Center, Vegetable Crops Department, Horticulture Institute, Giza 12619, Egypt;Horticulture Department, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Kafrelsheikh, Kafr El-Sheikh 33516, Egypt;Instituto de Conservación y Mejora de la Agrodiversidad Valenciana, Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022 Valencia, Spain;Soil and Water Department, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Kafrelsheikh, Kafr El-Sheikh 33516, Egypt;

关键词: abiotic stress;    antioxidants;    catalase;    Cucumis sativus;    peroxidase;    proline;   

DOI  :  10.3390/horticulturae7030061

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Improving the productivity of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) plants subjected to combined salinity and heat stresses is a significant challenge, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. Gianco F1 cucumbers were grafted onto five cucurbit rootstocks and, together with an ungrafted control, were grown in Egypt in a net house with saline soil during the summer season over two years. The vegetative growth, yield, quality, biochemical, and mineral composition traits were measured. Although many differences were observed among treatments, in general, the grafted plants had a performance better than or similar to that of the ungrafted plants, based on the different parameters measured. In particular, the cucumber plants grafted onto the Cucurbita maxima × C. moschata interspecific hybrid rootstocks VSS-61 F1 and Ferro had the highest early and total marketable yields. These two rootstocks consistently conferred higher vigor to the scion, which had lower flower abortion rates and higher chlorophyll contents. The fruit quality and N, P, and K composition in the leaves suffered few relevant changes as compared with the control. However, the leaves of the VSS-61 F1 had higher catalase activity, as well as proline and Se contents, while those of Ferro had higher Si content. This study reveals that the grafting of cucumber plants onto suitable rootstocks may mitigate the adverse effects caused by the combination of saline soil and heat stresses. This represents a significant improvement for cucumber cultivation in saline soil under high-temperature stress conditions in arid regions.

【 授权许可】

Unknown