Effect of different rootstocks on wilting occurrence, plant growth, and fruit quality of melon.

Key growing characteristics of melon cultivars, 'Homerunstar' and 'Earl's elite' were investigated after they were grafted onto Cucurbita rootstocks 'Gangguntozwa', 'Shintozwa', 'Teuktozwa', 'Joinus', 'Rainbow', 'Ace', and 'Elite'. Significantly different results were obtained in wilting incidence, plant growth, fruit quality and fruit yield depending on various rootstocks. No wilting symptom was observed when cultivar 'Homerunstar' was grafted onto 'Gangguntozwa', 'Teuktozwa' and 'Ace' rootstocks, whereas the symptom occurrence was 83, 55, 22, and 16%, respectively, when grafted onto 'Rainbow', 'Elite', 'Joinus', and 'Shintozwa'. Occurrence of wilting symptom was 100% when the cultivar was grown without giafting. The occurrence of wilting symptom in cultivar 'Earl's elite' was 6% when it was grafted onto 'Elite' and 'Joinus' rootstocks, whereas it was 72% when the cultivar was grafted onto 'Rainbow' rootstocks. The highest soluble-solid content (degrees Brix) was observed when cultivar 'Earl's elite' was grafted onto 'Ace' or 'Joinus'. When the cultivar 'Homerunstar' was grown without grafting, the soluble-solid content was 1 degrees Brix higher than that of grafted one; however, a higher ratio of sucrose to glucose+fructose (S/G+F) was observed in the fruit. Total fruit yield was higher when the two cultivars were grafted onto 'Gangguntozwa', 'Shintozwa', 'Teuktozwa', and 'Ace' rootstocks than those of non-grafted ones. These results Suggest that the best rootstock for cultivar 'Homerunstar' is 'Teuktozwa' and for cultivar 'Earl's elite' is 'Ace'.