Watermelon grafting is an important part of watermelon production to avoid soil-borne diseases and/or chemical fumigation in areas where land rotation is not feasible. Current commercial grafting practices depend on maintaining at least one rootstock cotyledon during the healing period following grafting for high survival (Cushman, 2006; Lee, 1994; Lee and Oda, 2003; Oda, 1995). Rootstock re-growth originating from meristematic tissue next to the
remaining cotyledon is one main contributing barrier preventing affordable costs, which prevents its introduction into the United States agricultural system (Edelstein, 2004).
