Growth, yield and physiological responses of watermelon cv. Charleston Gray grafted on bitter apple (Citrullus colocynthis L.) rootstock under deficit irrigation stress

Document Type : Full Paper

Authors

1 Former M.Sc. Student, Department of Horticultural Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Horticultural Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran

3 Former Ph. D. Student, University College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran

Abstract

In order to study the effect of deficit irrigation stress on growth, yield and physiological traits of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus cv. Charleston Gray), an experiment was carried out in a split plot based on randomized complete block design with three replicates in university of Zanjan. Treatments consisted of three irrigation levels (100%, 70% and 50% Crop Evapotranspiration (ETc)) and grafting (plants grafted on bitter apple and ungrafted plants). Results showed that deficit irrigation stress significantly decreasedgrowth, yield and water use efficiency (WUE) and increased electrolyte leakage and proline content. The highest value of fruit yield and WUE were obtained in ungrafted and grafted plants under irrigation 100% ETc. The maximum soluble solid content was recorded at grafted plant under deficit irrigation 50% ETc. The highest leaf area, plant length, fruit firmness and RWC were obtained in ungrafted plants under irrigation 100% ETc. The maximum POX activity was observed in grafted plants under deficit irrigation 50% ETc. Bitter apple rootstock decreased calcium concentration under irrigation 100% and 70% ETc and increased blossom end rot (BER), but by increasing deficit irrigation stress, calcium concentration in ungrafted plants was decreased and BER was increased. According to the results, grafting on bitter apple rootstock had no positive effects.

Keywords

Main Subjects


  1. Al Thawadi, A. M. & Grace, J. (1986). Water use by the desert cucurbit Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad. Oecologia, 70, 475-480.
  2. Alan, O., Ozdemir, N. & Gunen, Y. (2007). Effect of grafting on watermelon plant growth, yield and quality. Journal of Agronomy, 6(2), 362-365.
  3. Al-Ghobari, H. M., Mohammad, F. S. & El-Marazky, M .S. A. (2013). Effect of intelligent irrigation on water use efficiency of wheat crop in arid region. Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences, 23 (6), 1691-1699.
  4. Apel, K. & Hirt, H. (2004). Reactive oxygen species: metabolism, oxidative stress, and signal transduction. Plant Biology, 55, 373-399.
  5. Ashraf, M. & Foolad, M. R. (2007). Roles of glycine betaine and proline in improving plant abiotic stress resistance. Environmental and Experimental Botany, 59, 206-216.
  6. Aydin, A., Kant, C. & Turan, M. (2012). Humic acid application alleviates salinity stress of bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) plants decreasing membrane leakage. African Journal of Agricultural Research, 7(7), 1073-1086.
  7. Babalar, M., Dolati Baneh, A. & Shraftyan, D. (1998). Effect of calcium chloride on the quality of post-harvest storage of two varieties of grape and currant Shahroudi.  Iranian Journal of Horticultural Science, 15(1), 31-40. (in Farsi)
  8. Barzegar, T., Delshad, M., Majd Abadi, A., Kashi, A. & Ghashghaie, J. (2011). Effect of water stress on growth, yield and some physiological parameters of Iranian melon. Iranian Journal of Horticaltural Sciences, 42 (4), 357-363. (in Farsi)
  9. Borgi, Z., Hibar, K. h., Boughalleb, N., Jabari, H. (2009). Evaluation of four local colocynth accessions and four hybrids, used as watermelon Rootstocks, for resistance to fusarium wilt and fusarium crown and root rot. African Journal of Plant Science and Biotechnology, Global Science Books.
  10. Core, J. (2005). Grafting watermelon on to squash or gourd rootstock makes firmer, healthier fruit. Agricultural Research, 53, 8-9.
  11. Dabauza, M., Bordas, M., Salvador, A., Roig, L. A. & Moreno, V. (1997). Plant regeneration and agrobacterium-mediated transformation of cotyledon explants of Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad. Plant Cell Reports, 16, 888-892.
  12. Dane, F., Liu, J. & Zhang, C. (2006). Phylogeography of the bitter apple, Citrullus colocynthis. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution, 54, 327-336.
  13. Djidonou, D., Zhao, X., Simonne, E. H., Koch, K. E. & Erickson, J. E. (2013). Yield, water and nitrogen use efficiency in field grown, grafted tomatoes. Horticulture Science, 48(4), 485-492.
  14. Duke, J. A. (1983).Citrulls colocynthis (L.) Schrad. Handbook of Energy Crops. Unpublished.
  15. Esmaielpour, B., Ghassemi-Golezani, K., Khoei, F. R., Gregoorian, V. & Toorchi, M. (2006). The effect of NaCl priming on cucumber seedling growth under salinity stress. Journal of Food, Agriculture andEnvironment, 4(2), 347-349.
  16. FAOSTAT. (2014). http://faostat. fao.org/site/340/default.aspx.
  17. Farooq, M., Somasundaram, R. & Panneerselvam, R. (2012). Drought stress in plants: a review on morphological characteristics and pigments composition. International Journal of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, 11, 100-105.
  18. Flores, F. B., Sanchez-Bel, P., Estan, M. T., Morales, B., Campos, J. F., Egea, M. I., Romojaro, F. & Bolarin, M. C. (2010). The effectiveness of grafting to improve tomato fruit quality.Scientia Horticulturae, 125, 211-217.
  19. Guo, Z., Ou, W., Lu, S. & Zhong, Q. (2006). Deferential response of antioxidative system to chilling and drought in four rice cultivars differing in sensitivity. Plant Physiology Biochemistry, 44, 828-836.
  20. Huang, Y., Bie, Z., He, S., Hua, B., Zhen, A. & Liu, Z. (2010). Improving cucumber tolerance to major nutrients induced salinity by grafting onto Cucurbita ficifolia. Environmental and Experimental Botany, 69(1), 32-38.
  21. Iseri, O. D., Korp, D. A., Sahin, F. I. & Haberal, M. (2015). High salt induced oxidative damage and antioxidant response in tomato grafted on tobacco. Chilean journal of agricultural research, 75(2), 192-201.
  22. Kunkel, D. B., Braitberg, G., Poisonousplants, I., Haddad, L. M., Shannon. M. W. & Winchester, J. F. (1998). Clinical Management of Poisoning and Drug Overdose 3rded. W.B Saunders Company, Philadelphia, USA, 375-85.
  23. Kusvuran, S. (2010). Relationships between physiological mechanisms of tolerances to drought and salinity in melons. Ph.D. thesis, Department of Horticulture Institute of Natural and Applied Sciences University of Çukurova, Turkey.
  24. Levi, A., Coffey, J., Massey, L., Guner, N., Oren, E., Tadmor, Y. & Ling, K. S. (2016). Resistance to papaya ringspot virus-watermelon strain (PRSV-W) in the desert watermelon Citrullus colocynthis. Horticulture Science, 51(1), 4-7.
  25. Li, X. L., Liu, F. L., Li, G. T., Lin, Q. M. & Jensen, C. R. (2010) Soil microbial response, water and nitrogen use by tomato under different irrigation regimes. Agricultural Water Management, 98(3), 414-418.
  26. Liu, H.Y., Zhu, Z. J., Diao, M., Guo, Z. P. (2006). Characteristic of the sugar metabolism inleaves and fruits of grafted watermelon during fruit development. Plant Physiology Communications, 42, 835-840.
  27. Martinez-Ballesta, M. C., Alcaraz-Lopez, C., Muries, B., Mota-Cadenas, C. & Carvajal, M. (2010). Physiological aspects of rootstock-scion interactions. ScienceHorticultural, 127, 112-118.
  28. Mesgari, R., Barzegar, T. & Ghahremani, Z. (2016). The Effect of Different Cucurbit Rootstocks on Some Morphological and Physiological Traits of Cucumber (Cucumis sativus cv. Super Dominus). Journal of Horticultural Science, 30 (2), 224-231. (in Farsi)
  29. Poudel, S. R. & Lee W. S. (2009). Response of eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) as rootstock for tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.). Horticulture NCHU, 34(2), 39-52.
  30. Ramezan, D., Hassanpour Asil, M., Salehi, R. & Dehghanisanij, H. (2016). Investigation of mineral elements concentration in leaf and root grafted and ungrafted melon (Zard-e-Jalali accession from Inodorus group) under deficit irrigation on drip irrigation system. Agricultural Crop Management, 18(2), 415-430. (in Farsi)
  31. Rivero, R.M., Ruiz, J.M. & Romero, L. (2003). Role of grafting in horticultural plants under stress conditions. Food, Agriculture and Environment, 1, 70-74.
  32. Rouphael, Y., Cardarelli, M., Colla, G. & Rea, E. (2008a). Yield, mineral composition, water relations, and water use efficiency of grafted mini-watermelon plants under deficit irrigation. Horticultural Science, 43, 730-736.
  33. Rouphael, Y., Cardarelli, M., Rea, E. & Colla, G. (2008b). Grafting of cucumber as a means to minimize copper toxicity.Environmental and Experimental Botany, 63, 49-58.
  34. Ruiz, J. M., Blasco, B., Rivero, R. M. & Romero, L. (2005). Nicotine-free and salt tolerant tobacco plants obtained by grafting to salinity-resistant rootstocks of tomato. Physiology Plant, 124, 465-475.
  35. Salam, M. A., Masum, A. S. M. H., Chowdhury, S. S., Dhar, M., Saddeque, A. & Islam, M. R. (2002). Growth and yield of watermelon as influenced by grafting. Journal of Biological Sciences, 2, 298-299.
  36. Salehi, R. (2002). The effect of different rootstocks on the yield and vegetative growth greenhouse cucumber. Grand Faculty, University College of Agriculture. University of Tehran. . (in Farsi)
  37. Simon, E. W. (1978). The symptoms of calcium deficiency in plants. New Phytologist, 80, 1-15.
  38. Sivritepe, N., Sivritepe, H. O. & Eris, A. (2003). The effects of NaCl priming on salt tolerance in melon seedlings grown under saline conditions. ScienceHorticultural, 97, 229-237.
  39. Suyum, K., Dasgan, H. Y., Sari, N. & Kusvuran, S. (2012). Genotypic variation in the response of watermelon genotypes to salinity and drought stresses. In: Proceedings of the 15th National Vegetable Symposium, Konya-Turkey.pp.225-230.
  40. Tannin-Spitz, T. S. H., Grossman, S., Dovrat, H. E., Gottlieb & Bergman, M. (2007). Growth inhibitory activity of cucurbitacin glucosides isolated from Citrullus colocynthis on human breast cancer cells. Biochemical Pharmacology, 73, 56-67.
  41. Vaziri, Z. H., Salamat, A., Ansari, M., Meschi, M., Heidari, N. & Dehqany Sanych, H. (2009). Evapotranspiration plant (water consumption guidelines for plants) (Translation). Publications of the National Committee of Irrigation and Drainage, printing, Tehran. (in Farsi)
  42. Wang, H., Siopongco, J., Wade, L. J. & Yamauchi, A. (2009). Fractal analysis on root systems of rice plants in response to drought stress. Environmental and Experimental Botany, 65(2), 338-344.
  43. Xu, C. Q., Li, T. L., Qi, H. Y. & Wang, H. (2005). Effects of grafting on growth and development, yield, and quality of muskmelon. China Vegetables, 6, 12-14.
  44. Yetisir, H., Sari, N. & Yucel, S. (2003). Rootstock resistance to fusarium wilt and effecton watermelon fruit yield and quality. Phytoparasitica, 31, 163-169.
  45. Zhu, J., Bie, Z. L., Li, Y. N., (2008). Physiological and growth responses of two differentsalt-sensitive cucumber cultivars to NaCl stress. Soil Scienceand Plant Nutrition, 54, 400-407.