The Effect of Grafting on Yield and some Vegetative Traits of Two Green¬house Cucumber Cultivars

The effect of grafting on yield and some other quantitative and qualitative characteristics of two green¬house cucumber cultivars, namely Roberto and Danito grafted on five rootstocks of Shintoza, Kiroshintoza (Cucurbita maxima × C. moschata), Cucurbita maxima (C. maxima cv. Goriki), Fig leaf gourd (C. ficifolia cv. Korodome), and Bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) was investigated in this study. The experiment was carried out as a factorial one in a greenhouse in Amzajerd of Hamedan in 2007. A completely randomized design of four replications was employed in the study. The results of the study indicated that, type of rootstock did have a significant effect on yield and growth parameters. Cucumber grafted on rootstock var. Goriki yielded the highest (8.5 kg/plant), with no significant difference with Shintoza (8.13 kg/plant). Cucumber grafted on rootstock Bottle gourd along with the control had the lowest yields of 6.6 and 6.8 kg/plant. Cucumber grafted on rootstock Goriki compared to other rootstocks, was precocious, whereas non grafted cucumber was late mature. Such growth parameters as height of plant, number of nodes, number of secondary branches, number of fruits, shoot, root and plant wet and dry weighs were higher in Fig leaf gourd compared to others. These traits were low in the non grafted cucumber (control) and in Bottle gourd compared to others. The cucumber cultivar type showed no significant effect on any of the vegetative characters.