Impact of Cucurbita and Cucumis rootstocks on the performance and quality of Piel de Sapo melon

Melon grafting represent an increasingly important strategy against biotic and abiotic stresses. Cucurbita hybrid rootstocks have been extensively developed for this purpose, but it is necessary to develop new alternatives. Several experimental rootstocks of cultivated and wild resources from the Cucurbita and Cucumis genera have been evaluated using Piel de Sapo melon as scion. Cucurbita rootstocks tended to increase fruit size and seed cavity and offered more rounded shapes at the early stages of ripening, but this effect was later minimised. Cucumis rootstocks tended to show less vigour than those of Cucurbita. C. metuliferus hybrid rootstock caused plant collapse at specific environmental conditions, probably due to differences in the growth of rootstock and scion. The effects of Cucurbita and Cucumis rootstocks on sugar and acid accumulation of Piel de Sapo was almost negligible, but they altered the volatile profile. This last impact depended on the specific scion x rootstock interaction and the environmental conditions. Cucumis rootstocks tend to minimise it, especially the hybrid C. melo subsp melo x C. melo subsp agrestis Pat 81, which offered a volatile profile highly resembling the non-grafted control. On the other hand, wild alternatives had higher impact. In this data set you can find the data associated to the manuscript sent for consideration to the journal Scientia horticulturaeThis research has been funded by grants AGL2014-53398-C2-2-R and AGL2017-85563-C2-1-R-AR, funded by AEI 10.13039/501100011033 and by "ERDF: A way of making Europe". A. Cáceres expresses his thanks to Secretaria de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (SENESCYT) and Instituto Nacional De Fomento Al Talento Humano (IFTH) for the grant received