How rootstock/scion combinations affect watermelon fruit quality after harvest?

Abstract Grafting of vegetable seedlings is a unique horticultural technology, practiced for more than five decades, aiming to overcome problems associated with intensive cultivation on limited arable land. Grafting can protect vegetables against soil‐borne diseases and nematodes; against abiotic stresses such as high or low temperatures, salinity, drought or excessive soil‐water content; and against elevated soil concentrations of heavy metals and organic pollutants. Watermelon is one of the most popular vegetables to be grafted, and more than 90% of the plants worldwide are commercially grafted. This mini review aims to summarize the latest available information about the effects of rootstock/scion combinations with respect to enhancing or impairing watermelon fruit‐quality. A better understand of the influence of rootstock/scion compatibility or incompatibility on fruit‐quality parameters will facilitate decision‐making by growers and direct breeding programs to produce high‐quality grafted fruits in a cost‐effective manner. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry