Abstract
The cultivation of grafted vegetable is one of the essential cultural techniques for certain vegetables in many parts of the world where intensive and successive cropping is routinely practiced. More than 95% of the watermelons and oriental melons in Japan, Korea, Taiwan are being grafted on squash and gourd rootstocks before transplanting. The number of vegetables being grafted is estimated to be 540 million seedlings per year in Korea and 750 million in Japan. The benefits of grafting are well recognized so that illustration on vegetable grafting has become the key portion of the crop production guide pamphlets published by the government. Even though several grafting robots have been introduced to Korea from Japan, none of them are used now for practical grafting, possibly because of several unexpected limitations. In addition, most of these robots are too big to be handled and too expensive to be purchased by individual growers. Reasonably priced and easy-to-handle grafting machines are also urgently needed for the individual growers. Growing highly uniform seedlings in tray is vital for efficient grafting operation, especially for grafting by robots. Research relevant to seed germination and ways to obtain fast and uniform seed germination should be conducted to maximize the efficiency of vegetable grafting.
