In our study, we evaluated the effect of grafting on the yield of bell pepper cultivated in a greenhouse. A two-factorial experiment was designed and conducted from April to November 2021 in the greenhouse at the Biotechnical School Šempeter in Nova Gorica. Plants of two bell pepper cultivars ('Belladonna F1' and 'Vedrana F1') were grafted onto three rootstocks for pepper grafting ('Kiso F1', 'Maqueda F1', and 'Rocal F1'). Ungrafted plants served as controls. The experiment was set up in three replicates, each consisting of 10 plants. Technologically ripe fruits were harvested seven to ten days. From the beginning of July until mid-November, we conducted ten picking. On each harvest day, marketable and unmarketable (damaged) fruits were counted and weighed. For morphological analysis, eight fruits were randomly selected from each treatment, and fruit mass, fruit width and length, pericarp width, skin colour, and total soluble solids content were measured. Grafting influenced some morphological characteristics of the pepper fruits. The fruits of 'Belladonna F1' plants grafted onto the 'Kiso F1' rootstock were narrower than those of 'Belladonna F1' plants grafted onto the 'Rocal F1' rootstock. Grafting had no significant effect on pericarp thickness in any of the tested cultivars. In the colour analysis, fruits of 'Vedrana F1' plants grafted onto the 'Maqueda F1' and 'Rocal F1' rootstocks were paler, as the C* value was significantly lower than in fruits of ungrafted plants. Grafting also increased the total soluble solids content only in fruits of 'Vedrana F1' cultivars, with grafts onto the 'Rocal F1' rootstock having a higher TSS content (4 ± 0.2 °Brix) compared to fruits of ungrafted plants (3.5 ± 0.1°Brix).
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