**Combined Influence of Cutting Angle and Diameter Differences between Seedlings on the Grafting Success of Tomato Using the Splicing Technique**

**José-Luis Pardo-Alonso 1, Ángel Carreño-Ortega 1,\*, Carolina-Clara Martínez-Gaitán <sup>2</sup> and Ángel-Jesús Callejón-Ferre <sup>1</sup>**


Received: 11 November 2018; Accepted: 19 December 2018; Published: 21 December 2018

**Abstract:** Herbaceous crop yield intensification creates favourable conditions for the development of pests that intensify the attack of soil pathogens traditionally controlled by disinfectant, which are mostly prohibited and unlisted because of their toxicity. The use of grafted plants solves this problem and assists in addressing abiotic stress conditions. Within Solanaceae, specifically tomato crops (*Solanum lycopersicum*), the use of the splicing technique (simple and easily automated) is of special interest. This experiment attempts to present the combined influence of cutting angle and different random diameters on grafting success with the objective of detecting an optimum working range that will be applicable to automated and robotic grafting systems. An increase in the grafting angle is associated with a higher survival of grafted plants despite variations in diameter. Moreover, a threshold cutting angle is observed from which the success rate no longer increases but decreases drastically. Therefore, for a given working range with a significant cutting angle, whether the seedlings of origin are similar in diameter is not important, and this factor is more influential outside the optimal cutting angle range.

**Keywords:** tomato grafting; splice grafting technique; graft angle; random diameter
