Impact of Solanum pimpinellifolium as Rootstock in Amelioration of Salinity Effects in Tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum cv. Money maker)

In order to investigate the effect of using wild species as a rootstock in grafting plants on salinity tolerance in tomato, a factorial experiment in a randomized complete block design were conducted. The first factor was grafting including Money maker non- grafted (M), Money maker self-grafted (M+M), Money maker grafted on S. pimpinellifolium LA0722 (M+P1) and Money maker grafted on S. pimpinellifolium LA 2184 and the second factor was three concentration of NaCl including the 0, 40 and 80 mM along with Hogland nutrient solution that were applied to tomato in the hydroponics greenhouse, Department of Horticulture, University of Tabriz. The results showed that the increasing salinity had a negative effect on leaf area and yield, and total fruit number in tomato cv. Money maker, the use of S. pimpinellifolium as rootstock showed the best performance under different salinity conditions. Also, in the highest salinity concentration, the lowest sodium content was observed in the plants grafted on S. pimpinellifolium LA0722. The results indicate that, use of pimpinellifolium as rootstock in 80mM NaCl level had 69% higher fruit yields than the non and self- grafted Money maker plants.