Management of Bacterial Wilt Using Grafting Technique in Tomato (Ralstonia solanacearum)

Tomato farmers have been facing a major threat of entire crop loss because of bacterial wilt of tomato. Grafting of highly productive scion onto resistant rootstock is one of the best methods to prevent crops from bacterial wilt disease. An experiment was conducted using tomato (RS-101) and eggplant (KER-DC-117) rootstocks grafted with six scion varieties in different combinations to make total of nine treatments replicated three times in completely randomized design in the naturally infected farmer’s fields at Dahachok, Nepal in 2019. All the three treatments with eggplant rootstock (KER-DC-117) were found to be resistant. Karma 777, Shrijana and Samjhana scions grafted onto tomato rootstock (RS-101) were moderately resistant, whereas Sarita and Karma 555 grafted onto tomato rootstock (RS-101) were moderately susceptible. Non-grafted Sarita was highly susceptible with 100% disease incidence. There were no bacterial browning and bacterial oozing in treatments with tomato rootstock (RS-101). The yield and number of fruits was maximum with Karma 444 grafted onto eggplant rootstock (KER-DC-117). So, Karma 444 + ER (KER-DC-117) is the best scion-rootstock combination to manage bacterial wilt against tomato at Dahachok, Kathmandu.