OPTIMIZING OF TECHNOLOGY FOR OBTAINING THE GRAFTED WATERMELONS IN DIFFERENT PHENOLOGICAL PHASES OF THE SCION IN THE CLIMATIC CONDITIONS FROM ROMANIA

References: 14th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2014, www.sgem.org, SGEM2014 Conference Proceedings, ISBN 978-619-7105-20-9 / ISSN 1314-2704, June 19-25, 2014, Book 6, Vol. 1, 467-472 pp

ABSTRACT
The research aimed to establish the technological stages for obtaining the grafted
watermelons in different phenological phases of the scion in the climatic conditions
from Romania. The observations were done in 2013-2014 period, inside the Laboratory of Protected Cultures, in greenhouse specialized in producing from grafted vegetable seedlings of the Research and Development Institute for Processing and Marketing of the Horticultural Products – Horting, Bucharest. Grafting is based on the merge between scion and rootstock. The experience has varied with following factors: scion, rootstock and phenological phase of the scion. The biological material used was formed from five F1 hybrids: two Lagenaria siceraria rootstocks – UG29A and Macis and three scions – Sorento, Pată neagră, Vasko. The scion and rootstock seedlings were obtained in alveolar trays (24 ml/cell volume for scion and 15 ml/cell volume for rootstock), in nutritive mixture (peat3 : perlite1). The germination conditions were: 25-270C, 80% relative atmospheric humidity. The germination temperature was maintained at constant value (day and night) until to plant emergence. The plants were maintained between emergence and grafting according to classical technology for obtaining the cucurbit seedlings. The grafting was performed in different phenological phases of the scion: cotyledon leaves, one true leaf, two true leaves. The statistical analysis showed differences between variants. The phenological phase of the scion has influenced the survival rate of the grafted plants. The optimal phenological phase was first true leaf for all scions. For a successful grafting is necessary to observe the optimal phase of the watermelon scions; it is an important aspect in the technology for producing of grafted watermelons.

Keywords: Citrullus lanatus sp. vulgaris, grafting, technological stages