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Evaluation of Rootstocks for Watermelon Grafting With Reference
to Plant Development, Yield and Fruit Quality

E.M. Khah1, S.A. Petropoulos2, H.C. Passam2

1
Laboratory of Genetics and Plant Breeding, University of Thessaly, School of
Agricultural Sciences, Department of Agriculture, Crop Production and Rural
environment, Fytokou Street, N.Ionia, Volos 384 46, Greece.
2
Laboratory of Vegetable Production, Agricultural University of Athens, Iera Odos
75-77, Votanikos 11855, Athens, Greece.
Author for correspondence: E.M. Khah (ekhah@agr.uth.gr)

Abstract
Watermelon cv. Sugar Baby and Crimson Sweet were either self-rooted or grafted on
to Cucurbita sp. rootstock RS 841 F1 or bottle gourd Lagenaria siceraria (Molina)
Standl. f. clavata (year 1), as well as L. siceraria f. pyrotheca (year 2). After grafting,
plants were held at either 8oC or 16oC (minimum) until the time for transplantation
(28-29 days), at which stage growth was assessed as plant height, leaf number, leaf
area and fresh weight in comparison with the self-rooted control held under the same
conditions. From the results, it was found that in year 1, plants held at 16oC were
taller and had a higher total fresh weight than those held at 8oC. The grafted plants of
both varieties were taller and had a higher leaf area and fresh weight at this stage than
the self-rooted plants, irrespective of the rootstock. At the stage of transplantation in
year 2, the grafted plants of both cultivars were more developed than the self-rooted
plants in terms of height, leaf area, leaf number and fresh weight. Significant
differences between rootstocks were not observed except for the plants of Crimson
Sweet x L. siceraria f. pyrotheca, which were taller than those of the other two scion-
rootstock combinations, irrespective of the temperature. Mean fruit weight was higher
in the grafted plants than in the self-rooted plants, but no effect of grafting on sugar
content was observed. It is concluded that grafting of watermelon results in better
plant growth by the time of transplantation and does not adversely affect fruit quality.
For early grafting (as in year 1) a minimum temperature of 16oC is indicated during
the post-grafting stage.

Keywords: Citrullus lanatus, scion, sugars

INTRODUCTION

Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus [Thunb.] Mansf.) is a major horticultural crop within

the Mediterranean region and in Greece annual production amounts to approximately
600,000 tons. Although the bulk of this production is consumed on the domestic
market, approximately 140,000 tons are exported, particularly early watermelons
(Passam, 2003). Because of the prevalence of soil-borne disease, almost all
watermelons are grafted on to disease-resistant rootstocks (Traka-Mavrona et al.,
2000). In southern Greece, watermelons are cultivated under low cover for early
production, but because these plants can still be exposed to sub-optimal air and soil
temperatures it may be advantageous to use rootstocks that tolerate low temperatures.
Although rootstocks with tolerance to low temperatures are known, for successful use
they must be compatible with the scion (Bletsos and Passam, 2010). In the present
paper we investigate the effect of grafting and post-grafting temperature on the plant
characteristics of two watermelon cultivars at the time of transplantation and
subsequent fruit quality.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Two watermelon (Citrullus vulgaris [Thunb.] Mansf.) cultivars (Sugar Baby and
Crimson Sweet) were either self-rooted or grafted onto Cucurbita sp. rootstock RS
841 F1 (Royal Sluis) and Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl. f. clavata in year 1,
with the addition of L. siceraria f. pyrotheca in year 2. Seeds of the watermelons were
sown on 6 February (year 1) and 20 February (year 2), while the seeds of the
rootstocks were sown 4 or 8 days later (years 1 and 2 respectively). For each
watermelon and rootstock cultivar, the seeds were sown in two trays containing a
substrate of soil and peat (Klasmann KTS1, Deilmann) in a ratio of 1:1 (v/v), enriched
with 120-160 mg N, 140-180 mg P2O5 and 160-200 mg K2O per m3 and with a pH of
5.5-6.5. The seed trays were covered with transparent polyethylene film and
maintained at a temperature of 16°C. After emergence, one tray of each cultivar was
held at 16°C (minimum) while the second tray was transferred to 8°C (minimum)
until transplantation to the field. Grafting took place on 1 and 22 of March (years 1
and 2 respectively) using the tongue-approach technique (Oda, 1999) and the grafted
plants were transplanted to plastic pots (6.5 x 6.5 x 7 cm) containing the same
substrate. The grafted plants were maintained at 8oC or 16oC (minimum temperature)
until 29 March (year 1) or 26 April (year 2) at which stage they were assessed for
height, leaf area, leaf number and fresh weight in comparison with the self-rooted
controls. The statistical design was that of completely randomized blocks, with each
block consisting of 5 plants per treatment and three replications.
One plant per replicate (from both 8oC and 16oC) was transplanted to the field
together with the self-rooted plants in year 1, spaced at 1.5 x 3.5 m and cultivated by
established cultivation techniques, while in year 2, only plants from the 16oC
treatment were planted. Fruit were harvested at visual maturity in mid-July of both
years. After harvest, the mean fruit weight and total soluble solids (°Brix) within the
fruit flesh was measured with the aid of a hand refractometer.
Statistical analysis was carried out with the aid of the Statgraphics 5.1.plus
programme (Statistical Graphics Corporation) and Microsoft Excel 2007 (Microsoft
Corporation). Data were evaluated by analysis of variance for the main effects,
whereas the means of values were compared by Duncan’s multiple range test and the
least significant difference test (p=0.05).

RESULTS

At the time of transplantation (27 days after grafting in year 1 and 34 days after
grafting in year 2) the grafted plants of cv. Sugar Baby were taller than the self-rooted
plants of the same cultivar and had a higher fresh weight, leaf number (except the
plants at 8oC in year 1) and leaf area (Table 1). In year 1 the plants that were held at a
minimum temperature of 16oC after grafting were more developed at the time of
transplantation than those held at >8oC, but in year 2 the post-grafting temperature did
not affect plant development during the post-grafting period. This was due to the fact
that although the minimum temperature of the greenhouse was set at 8 oC, the later
time of grafting in year 2 meant that the temperature and light conditions during the
post-grafting stage of year 2 were better than those in year 1. For example, the mean
minimum temperatures during the post-grafting period were 9.6oC and 11.8oC for
years 1 and 2 respectively. The development of the Sugar Baby scion did not differ
significantly between the two rootstocks used for grafting in year 1 (L. siceraria f.
clavata and RS 841 F1) and in year 2 the only characteristic that differed significantly
was the increase in plant height when grafted on to L. siceraria f. pyrotheca compared
to the other two rootstocks and the self-rooted plants (Table 1).
Similarly, at the time of transplantation in both years the grafted plants of cv.
Crimson Sweet were taller than the self-rooted plants of the same cultivar (except CS
x L. siceraria f. clavata and CS x RS 841 F1 at 8oC) and had a higher fresh weight,
leaf number (except the plants at 16oC in year 1) and leaf area (Table 2). No
significant differences between rootstocks were observed in year 1, but in year 2 plant
height and leaf area at 8oC was higher in plants grafted on to L. siceraria f. pyrotheca
than on the other two rootstocks. In contrast, plant fresh weight was highest in plants
grafted on to L. siceraria f. clavata in year 2. Overall, all the growth characteristics of
the grafted plants of cv. Crimson Sweet were higher at the minimum temperature of
16oC, but not always to a statistically significant level (Table 2).
The mean fruit weight of cv. Sugar Baby ranged from 2.4 to 4.2 kg in year 1
and from 2.65 to 4.6 kg in year 2. Over the two years of the experiment, the mean
weight of fruit from self-rooted plants (3.14 kg) was lower than that of the grafted
plants: 3.65 kg (SB x L. siceraria f. clavata), 3.40 kg (SB x RS 841 F1) and 4.65 kg
(SB x L. siceraria f. pyrotheca in year 2). Additionally, the mean fruit weight from
the grafted plants that were held at 8oC in year was lower than that of the plants at
16oC (Figure 1). The mean fruit weight of cv. Crimson Sweet was significantly higher
than that of Sugar Baby and ranged from 3.9-5.5 kg (year 1) and 5.6-7.6 kg (year 2).
Over the two years, the mean fruit weight from the self-rooted plants was lower (5.24
kg) than that of the grafted plants CS x L. siceraria f. clavata (6.14 kg) and CS x L.
siceraria f. pyrotheca in year 2 (6.84 kg) but did not differ from CS x RS 841 F1 (5.29
kg). The lower mean fruit weight of CS x RS 841 F1 compared with the other
rootstocks was due to the reduction in fruit weight from plants held at 8oC in year 1
(Figure 2).
The sugar concentration (expressed as oBrix) within the fruit flesh of cv. Sugar
Baby was 8.5+0.7%, without statistically significant differences between the grafted
and self-rooted plants. In cv. Crimson Sweet, the sugar concentration was slightly
higher (9.1+0.8%), but was again not significantly affected by grafting or by the
scion-rootstock combination.

DISCUSSION

The results of the present experiments demonstrate that at the stage of transplantation
to the field, the grafted plants were more robust in terms of plant height, leaf area and
fresh weight than those of the self-rooted controls. Moreover, grafting increased fruit
size without affecting sugar content, as also observed by Balaz (1982) and He and Fu
(1988). The increase in growth of grafted plants relates to the more active root growth
of the rootstock (Yetisir and Sari, 2004).
In year 1, the better growth of the young plants at a minimum temperature of
16oC during the post-grafting phase than at >8oC indicates the need for a relatively
high temperature during the healing process. In year 2, grafting was performed later
and the climatic conditions (temperature and light) were better than in year 1, so that
even though a minimum temperature of 8oC was employed, in fact temperatures
seldom fell to this level during healing. Because of the demand for early watermelons,
the use of rootstocks that exhibit low temperature tolerance is desirable (Bletsos and
Passam, 2010). According to Liu et al. (2003) and Liu et al. (2004), grafted
watermelons tolerate low temperatures because the leaf antioxidant concentrations
and antioxidative enzyme activities are higher than in self-rooted plants. Although CS
x L. siceraria f. pyrotheca was included only in the experiment of year 2, this
rootstock appeared to support better scion growth of Crimson Sweet, as indicated by
the increase in plant height and leaf area at >8oC as well as a high fruit weight (both
cultivars). It is therefore suggested that this rootstock may be worthy of further
investigation with respect to possible low temperature tolerance.

LITERATURE CITED

Alexopoulos, A.A., Kondylis A. and Passam, H.C. 2007. Fruit yield and quality of
watermelon in relation to grafting. Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment
5 (1) : 178-179.
Balaz, F. 1982. Possibilities of grafting certain watermelon cultivars on Lagenaria
vulgaris to prevent Fusarium wilt. Sauvemena Poljiprivieda 30: 563-568.
Bletsos, F. and Passam, H.C. 2010. Grafting: an environmentally friendly technique to
overcome soil-borne diseases and improve the out of season production of
watermelon, cucumber and melon. In ‘Horticulture in the 21st Century’ Nova,
N.Y. (in press)
He, Z.L. and Fu, X.Y. 1988. Trials on watermelon grafting for resistance to wilt.
Fujian Agricultural Science and Technology 3: 4.
Liu, H.Y., Zhu, Z.J., Lu, G.H. and Qian, Q.Q. 2003. Study on relationship between
physiological changes and chilling tolerance in grafted watermelon seedlings
under low temperature stress. Scientia Sinica Agricultural 36: 1325-1329.
Liu, Y.Q., Liu, S.Q. and Wang, H.B. 2004. Effect of salt-tolerant stock on growth,
yield, and quality of watermelon, Shandong. Agricultural Science 4: 30-31.
Oda, M. 1999. Grafting of vegetables to improve greenhouse production. Food and
Fertilizer Technology Center, Extension Bulletin 480, Taipei city, Republic of
China on Taiwan, pp. 11.
Passam, H. C. 2003. Use of grafting makes a comeback.Fruit and Veg. Technology
3(4):7-9.
Traka-Mavrona, E., Koutsika-Sotiriou, M. and Pritsa, T. 2000. Response of squash
(Cucurbita spp.) as rootstock for melon (Cucumis melo L.). Sci. Hort. 83:353-362.
Yetisir, H. and Sari, N. 2004. Effect of hypocotyl morphology on survival rate and
growth of watermelon seedlings grafted on rootstocks with different emergence
performance at various temperatures. Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry
28: 231-237.
Table 1. The effect of rootstock-scion combination on plant height, leaf number, area
of the first two leaves and plant fresh weight of watermelon cv. Sugar Baby measured
27 days after grafting (year 1) and 34 days after grafting (year 2)

Year 1
Root x Scion Plant height (cm) Leaf number Leaf area (cm2) Fresh weight (g)
8°C 16°C 8°C 16°C 8°C 16°C 8°C 16°C
Sugar Baby
5.1 b 7.6 b 4.8 4.0 b 34.5 b 38.8 b 3.7 b 5.6 b
(self-rooted)
L. siceraria
f. clavata 7.5 a 13.1 a 4.5 5.6 a 42.6 a 48.5 a 4.8 a 6.7 a
x Sugar Baby
RS 841 F1 x
7.5 a 15.4 a 4.5 5.4 a 44.9 a 44.9 a 4.5 a 6.9 a
Sugar Baby
Year 2
Root x Scion Plant height (cm) Leaf number Leaf area (cm2) Fresh weight (g)
8°C 16°C 8°C 16°C 8°C 16°C 8°C 16°C
Sugar Baby
11.8 b 10.8 b 6.0 b 5.8 b 37.4 b 34.7 b 6.0 b 5.3 b
(self-rooted)
L. siceraria
f. clavata 14.0 a 12.5 b 6.7 a 6.8 a 47.0 a 40.8 a 7.1 a 7.0 a
x Sugar Baby
RS 841 F1 x
14.2 a 12.4 b 7.1 a 6.3 a 44.5 a 38.6 a 7.8 a 6.5 a
Sugar Baby
L. siceraria
f. pyrotheca 15.7 a 14.2 a 7.0 a 6.6 a 45.0 a 40.1 a 7.2 a 6.5 a
x Sugar Baby
Mean separation in columns by Duncan DMRT (p = 0.05).
Table 2. The effect of rootstock-scion combination on plant height, leaf number, area
of the first two leaves and plant fresh weight of watermelon cv. Crimson Sweet
measured 27 days after grafting (year 1) and 34 days after grafting (year 2)

Year 1
Root x Scion Plant height (cm) Leaf number Leaf area (cm2) Fresh weight (g)
8°C 16°C 8°C 16°C 8°C 16°C 8°C 16°C
Crimson
Sweet 5.6 b 7.8 b 3.8 b 4.6 a 39.9 b 43.8 b 4.1 b 5.4 b
(self-rooted)
L. siceraria
f. clavata
8.3 a 12.7 a 4.3 a 5.2 a 45.9 a 46.6 b 5.3 a 6.5 a
x Crimson
Sweet
RS 841 F1 x
Crimson 8.3 a 13.0 a 4.1 ab 5.1 a 42.2 b 51.4 a 5.0 a 7.0 a
Sweet
Year 2
Root x Scion Plant height (cm) Leaf number Leaf area (cm2) Fresh weight (g)
8°C 16°C 8°C 16°C 8°C 16°C 8°C 16°C
Crimson
Sweet 10.6 b 10.5c 5.7 b 5.5 b 39.9 c 44.0 b 4.4 c 5.6 c
(self-rooted)
L. siceraria
f. clavata
12.3 b 13.7 b 6.2 a 6.5 a 42.1 b 48.3 a 6.8 a 8.7 a
x Crimson
Sweet
RS 841 F1 x
Crimson 12.5 b 14.7 b 6.2 a 6.3 a 42.6 b 48.9 a 6.3 b 8.1 ab
Sweet
L. siceraria
f. pyrotheca
14.9 a 16.7 a 6.3 a 6.4 a 47.6 a 51.6 a 6.3 b 7.5 b
x Crimson
Sweet
Mean separation in columns by Dunca16,7 an DMRT (p = 0.05).
 >8oC (year 1)
5 >16oC (year 1)
Mean fruit weight (kg)

4 >16oC (year 2)

0
SB SB x LAG SB x 841 SB x XO
Scion-rootstock combination

Figure 1. Mean fruit weight of cv. Sugar Baby in self-rooted and grafted plants. The
rootstock-scion combinations are: Self-rooted (SB), L. siceraria f. clavata x Sugar
Baby (SB x LAG), RS 841 F1 x Sugar Baby (SB x 841), L. siceraria f. pyrotheca x
Sugar Baby (SB x XO).

8
7
Mean fruit weight (kg)

6
5 >8oC (year 1)
4 >16oC (year 1)
3 >16oC (year 2)

2
1
0
CS CS x LAG CS x 841 CS x XO
Scion-rootstock combination

Figure 2. Mean fruit weight of cv. Crimson Sweet in self-rooted and grafted plants.
The rootstock-scion combinations are: Self-rooted (CS), L. siceraria f. clavata x
Crimson Sweet (CS x LAG), RS 841 F1 x Crimson Sweet (CS x 841), L. siceraria f.
pyrotheca x Crimson Sweet (CS x XO).

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