Grafting technique in vegetable crops - A review

Grafting is a joining of two plant tissues, which are forced to develop vascular connection and grow as a single plant. Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus L.) plants grafted onto Lagenaria siceraria L. rootstock were the first grafted vegetable seedlings used to combat Fusarium wilt. In the Solanaceae and Cucurbitaceae families, vegetable grafting has been utilized for a variety of purposes, including enhancing resistance to biotic and abiotic challenges, and promoting plant growth and productivity. There are various manual grafting methods that suit each vegetable, and recently, grafting machines have been developed to produce the huge number of grafted plants required. In spite of their advantages, there are some limitations associated with them. These include the additional cost, some graft incompatibility leading to physiological disorders, and reductions in yield, fruit quality, and flower formation. Therefore, resort to the use of grafted plants should be done only after examining their benefits and risks.