Researchers at the Indian Institute of Vegetable Research (IIVR), Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, a field unit of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in the Ministry of Agriculture, have succeeded in devising a new agricultural technique to produce tomato and eggplant fruits together on the same plant through the process of grafting. .

The new plant was called "Primato", a word derived from the words eggplant and tomato, and researchers believe that the "Dual Grafted Brimato" technology will be very useful for urban and suburban areas, where there are limited spaces to accommodate vegetables in vertical gardens and in pots. above balconies.

Scientific leaders from the Indian Ministry of Agriculture examine the results of cultivation of the new technology (Indian Vegetable Research Institute)

Vaccination

Grafting is the process of transferring a part of one plant to another, so the first grows on the second, and the first is called the graft, and the second is the origin.

Farmers resort to grafting to propagate species and varieties with good specifications, high productivity, and disease-free, which cannot be propagated by cuttings, grafting, or other methods of vegetative propagation.

In this technique, the root is cut horizontally from the surface of the ground and a vertical incision is made in it that matches the shape of the graft tip. It is welded with a special coating to protect it from environmental factors, and it is wrapped with a tight tie. Over time, the tissues of the bud and the root are fused, and the plant begins to grow until it produces new branches.

Interspecific grafting has emerged as a promising tool to increase tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, in addition to enhancing productivity in vegetables, and double or multiple grafting as a new technology option, where two or more plants of the same family are grafted together to harvest more than one type of fruit from a single plant.

the new way

It is well known that tomatoes and eggplants are annual herbaceous seasonal vegetables, belonging to the same family and plant family (Solanaceae). Therefore, the hybrid of eggplant “Kashi Sandesh” and the improved variety of tomato “Kashi Aman” has been successfully grafted onto rootstocks. The graft-bearing, or rootstock, is the roots, with part of the stem, on which the desired grafts of the Eggplant hybrid (IC 111056) grow.

The grafting process was carried out when the eggplant seedlings were 25 to 30 days old, and the tomatoes were 22 to 25 days old.

The eggplant hybrid (IC 111056) tends to develop two branches in about 5% of seedlings.

The grafting was performed in a lateral manner, in which an inclined cut of 5 to 7 mm (at an angle of 45°) was made in both the root and stem grafts.

Shortly after grafting, the seedlings were kept under micro-atmospheric conditions, and the temperature, humidity and light were maintained at an optimum level for 5 to 7 days, then in partial shade for another 5 to 7 days.

The grafted plants were planted in the field 15 to 18 days after the grafting process.

During the early growth stage, precautions were taken to maintain balanced growth in both the root grafts of the eggplant and the grafted parts of the tomato, and the shoots were removed immediately, if they appeared under the graft union.

The new plant "Primato" is derived from the words eggplant and tomato (Indian Vegetable Research Institute)

promising results

The experimental results showed that about 36.0 fruits weighing about 2.383 kg were harvested in tomatoes from each plant, while 2.684 kg were obtained from 9.2 eggplant fruits per plant.

Fertilizers were used at a rate of 150: 60: 100 kg (NPK) / hectare, which is a chemical fertilizer consisting of 3 elements (nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium) combined with each other in addition to microelements, in addition to municipal fertilizer.

The plants started fruiting in a period extending from: 60 to 70 days after planting.

Indian researchers believe that this technology will be very useful for urban and suburban areas, and other places that are characterized by the small size of the agricultural area, and can be developed and expanded to include many other plants in the near future.