Grafting technique increases yield in eggplant production
LOS BAÑOS – Researchers from the Crop Science Cluster of the College of Agriculture of the University of the Philippines here said that using grafting techniques increase yield in eggplant production
Dr. Nenita Opina, UPLB’s research project leader, said that using grafting techniques in eggplant production reduce bacterial wilt infection, thus, result to increase yield and income for the farmers.
Opina said when high-yielding, susceptible commercial varieties of eggplant were grafted with rootstocks resistant to bacterial wilt, reduced incidence of the disease was noted. She added, however, that the degree of resistance showed by grafted plants was dependent on the level of resistance of the rootstocks.
She said that bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum, was found to limit eggplant production in the tropics.
Researchers said that in a recent survey, bacterial wilt incidence ranged from 15 percent to 30 percent and 95 percent in resistant cultivars and susceptible high-yielding commercial varieties of eggplant, respectively.
Opina said the Philrice-funded project titled “Influence of host resistance and grafting on the incidence of bacterial wilt in eggplant” was conducted in farmer’s fields that were naturally bacterial wilt infested in Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan, and Batangas and disease nurseries of UPLB and Philrice.
According to Opina, the high-yielding commercial varieties included in the research were Casino 901 and Bulakeña Long Purple (BLP), while farmer’s variety Nueva Ecija Green (NEG) and Abar were used as scion.
Bacterial wilt resistant varieties used as rootstocks were Eg 203, EG 195, S 69 and moderately resistant cultivars 89-002 and A 300, she said.
She said their findings revealed that susceptible Casino 901 varieties gave significantly lower bacterial wilt infection when grafted to rootstocks Eg 203 and 89-002.
Abar variety when grafted to Eg 203 failed to reduce bacterial wilt infection in UPLB nursery but not in Philrice nursery where the infection reduction was found significant.*PNA
