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In tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), grafting position is recommended to be below rootstock cotyledons to avoid undesirable axillary shoots growing out from the cotyledons. In contrast, grafting above the rootstock cotyledons is desired to assure adequate distance between grafted union and soil line, only if there is no potential grow-out of axillary shoots from rootstock cotyledons. The objective of this preliminary study was to examine fatty alcohol application on cotyledonary axils of tomato seedlings to control undesirable axillary shoot extension from rootstock in tomato grafting. Solution containing various concentrations of a commercial fatty alcohol compound was applied to different growing stages of cotyledonary axillary shoots (nonextended buds or extended shoots) of tomato seedlings grown in a greenhouse. When fatty alcohol was applied directly to cotyledonary axillary buds, the seedlings were then pinched to force-induce the axillary shoot extension to assure the efficacy of the fatty alcohol treatment. High concentrations (10% and 15%) of fatty alcohol suppressed incidence of axillary shoot extension to less than 7% by killing buds. However, when applied to extended axillary shoots, application with 2% or higher concentrations of fatty alcohol caused plant collapse because excess fatty alcohol flowed down the stem and presumably damaged the root system. Therefore, we concluded that application of fatty alcohol to control cotyledonary axillary shoots of tomato rootstock could be possible only if fatty alcohol at effective concentration (10% to 15%) is applied exclusively to the target buds.
Intumescence injury is an abiotic-stress-induced physiological disorder associated with abnormal cell enlargement and cell division. The symptom includes blister- or callus-like growths on leaves, which occur on sensitive cultivars of tomato when they are grown under ultraviolet (UV)-deficit light environment, such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Previous studies suggest that intumescence can be reduced by increasing far-red (FR) or blue light. In the present study, effects of end-of-day FR (EOD-FR) light and high blue photon flux (PF) ratio during the photoperiod on intumescence injury were examined using ‘Beaufort’ interspecific tomato rootstock seedlings (Solanum lycopersicum × Solanum habrochaites), a cultivar highly susceptible to intumescence injury. Our study showed that EOD-FR light treatment moderately suppressed intumescence injury. Using EOD-FR light treatment, the percent number of leaves exhibiting intumescences was reduced from 62.0–70.7% to 39.4–43.1%. By combining high blue PF ratio (75%) during the photoperiod and EOD-FR light treatment, the percent number of leaves exhibiting intumescences was further suppressed to 5.0%. Furthermore, the combination of high blue PF ratio and EOD-FR light treatment inhibited undesirable stem elongation caused by EOD-FR light treatment. We found that high blue PF ratio during the photoperiod combined with a small dose of EOD-FR lighting (≈1 mmol·m−2·d−1 provided by 5.2 µmol·m−2·s−1 FR PF for 3.3 minutes) could inhibit the problematic intumescence injury of tomato plants grown under LEDs without negatively influencing growth or morphology.