Effects of grafting on fruit yield and leaf nutrient contents of pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) inbred lines

A field experiment was conducted to investigate the rootstock effects on the fruit and seed yield and leaf nutrient contents of pepper, four pepper inbred lines (ER? 1227 and ER? 462: Long fruited green pepper type; 21 H-1-2 and 33 H-3-1: Bell shaped pepper type) were grafted onto two pepper rootstock genotypes (46 KB F1 and Scarface F1). The non-grafted scion genotypes were used as control plants. Between grafted and non-grafted plants significant (p<0.001) differences were found in fruit yield, dry matter, diameter, length and fruit number, seed yield, thousand seed weight and leaf P, K, Ca, Mg, Mn and Zn contents. Among the graft combinations, significantly higher fruit yield, dry matter, length of long fruited green pepper genotypes, leaf K content was observed when ?ER? 1227? grafted onto ?Scarface? rootstock; significantly higher Ca and Mn contents were recorded when ?ER? 462? grafted onto ?Scarface? rootstocks. Whereas, significantly highest fruit number and diameter of long fruited green pepper genotypes was recorded at the non-grafted plants of ?ER? 1227?. Overall, the pepper rootstock genotype ?Scarface? showed a better performance for fruit yield, dry matter, length of long fruited green pepper genotypes, fruit diameter of bell shaped pepper genotypes, K, Ca, Mg and Mn contents in leaf tissue, thousand seed weight in different graft combinations as compared to non-grafted pepper plants. All these suggest that the powerful rootstocks, which might be characterized by an efficient nutrient uptake, play a major role in improvement of plant growth performance, fruit, and seed yield.