Best grafted tomato varieties?

[z_willus_d]

I have to admit, this grafting business is hard. It's fun, but it's hard. Hard on the nerves when you get your hopes up and they're dashed. That said, I'm making slow steady progress. I've been at it for over a month now, and I've managed to generate about 13 grafted seedlings in various states of health and size/maturity.

I've posted some pics for your viewing pleasure. The first two show the standard demise of most of my grafts. Those there are in their final stages with one root, as it were, in the coffin. I keep rooting from them, but they inevitably die off.

The 3rd pic shows my most recent wave of grafts from a couple days back. They're looking ok now, but I expect half will look like the others in a week. I'd be greatly satisfied were I to hit a 50% success rate with these.

Pics 4 and 5 show some of my successful grafts under the LED lights, and pic 6 shows the first two successful grafts, now in outdoor environs, a Wes and Goose Creek.

Pics 7/8 show what I've done with the scion remains. Some of them are doing quite well for all they've suffered under the scalpel.

In general, I'd say the thicker stemmed grafts make out better. It's crucial to get a clean mate. I'm finding that one the most important things to look for before grafting is not only the size/diameter of the scion/RS pair but also to ensure that the area that will be cut and mated is very straight and linear. Curvature kills. Little bumps that remain from where branches are removed will also cause problems if under the graft clips. I try to ensure I open the healing chambers at least twice a day. As the grafts mature, I take them out and expose them. Often too much such that they will die, but I think those types were goners from the get go anyway.

I need another 20 or so successful grafts to be content. That means I really need to up my success rate over the next couple weeks. I don't want to be planting out in late May. I've made much of the discarded RS tops, re-rooting them sometimes 2 or 3 times to use in future graft trials. Those RS themselves become a kind of coin-toss, as only 30% seem to survive the re-rooting. I've gotten a bit better with that too.

Good luck all.
-naysen

[b54red]

Looking good Naysen. Despite the many disappointments this grafting is a lot of fun.

I can't wait to start moving my older grafts outdoors. Tonight is supposed to be in the mid 30's and then it will move up into the low 40's Friday night. No more danger of frost after tonight in the foreseeable future so it's time to get them hardened off and get my beds ready for planting.

It will be quite a while before my Multifort and Amelia plants will be ready for grafting since many of the seed still haven't broken the surface yet.

[livinonfaith]

Okay, for anyone who actually thought I would wait two days before I looked in the chamber, (like I said I would) Naaah!

I had to look when I came home. Didn't even make it 24 hours. So weak!!

So far, everything is standing up nice and straight.

Question for all of you guys. When did yours start to wilt if they weren't going to take?

[Stvrob]

Most of them will wilt some but they will come back to life. If its warm tomorrow and they aren't wilted maybe give them some fresh air and light. When they wilt ( they will) put them back in the humidity chamber till they perk up, then back into fresh air. They will all eventually die in the humidity chamber so try to push them a bit. In a few days they will probably be fine spending all day out in dappled sunlight.
Are your plants in trays or individual pots? If they are individually potted you can just pull out the ones that are ready leaving the slower healing ones under humidity.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by livinonfaith

Okay, for anyone who actually thought I would wait two days before I looked in the chamber, (like I said I would) Naaah!

I had to look when I came home. Didn't even make it 24 hours. So weak!!

So far, everything is standing up nice and straight.

Question for all of you guys. When did yours start to wilt if they weren't going to take?

Surprisingly some scions will not wilt for a week or so even though the graft didn't take. Some will wilt even when the graft seems to take and when you remove the clip it will remain together. Some will start wilting very early and usually you can get rid of those quickly. I am still finding plants that are failures even though the grafts were performed Feb 23rd through the 26th and some I'm just waiting on to see if they will recover. Of the ones that are badly wilted after coming out of the healing chamber only a very few will survive and perk back up. I still give them at least another week to see and usually a few will survive despite looking like death warmed over. From the experimenting I have done so far attempting over 200 grafts the only way to know for sure is to give them some time.

The perkiest ones can be given some direct sunlight just a couple of days after removal from the healing chambers; but I am finding giving them about a week on the porch before venturing outside into the wind and direct sunlight works better. Today I will load up all of the plants that look good and give them an hour or two of sunlight outside keeping a close eye on them. If any show the slightest wilting I will put them back on the porch or in my greenhouse.

I'm hoping that the plants grafted the first week of February that have already been in and out several times will get transplanted out into the garden this next week. They have started hardening up and are now growing fairly good and the clips have been removed from most of them without any problems. A trick on removing the clips if you want to save them for later is to squeeze the clip open and slide it down on the rootstock stem below the graft then remove gently.

It's 34 degrees outside right now but as soon as it warms up into the 40s I'll be taking them outside for a little fresh air and sunshine. I'll try and get some photos for posting later today to show the different graft stages that I have before they go outside.

Bill

[livinonfaith]

Mine are in individual pots, so that seems to be a good thing if they recover at different rates.

Unless they seem in distress, I'm not going to do anything to them until tomorrow morning. That will be 2 1/2 days after the graft. Then I may roll up the sheet a bit and open up the chamber, just a little. We'll see how that goes.

Honestly, I didn't spritz my chamber with any water because the grafts are in DE and they have a tray under them with a little water. I figured that would be plenty in that closed environment.

So the hope is that they will have enough humidity to heal, but not enough to cause all of the damping off and fungal/disease issues.

Don't know if that's how it works or not, but it feels right, somehow.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by livinonfaith

Mine are in individual pots, so that seems to be a good thing if they recover at different rates.

Unless they seem in distress, I'm not going to do anything to them until tomorrow morning. That will be 2 1/2 days after the graft. Then I may roll up the sheet a bit and open up the chamber, just a little. We'll see how that goes.

Honestly, I didn't spritz my chamber with any water because the grafts are in DE and they have a tray under them with a little water. I figured that would be plenty in that closed environment.

So the hope is that they will have enough humidity to heal, but not enough to cause all of the damping off and fungal/disease issues.

Don't know if that's how it works or not, but it feels right, somehow.

I think I would remove the water tray under the cups. In the healing chamber you shouldn't have the DE dry out too fast; but I have found that the grafts seem to do better when the rootstock is not well watered. If the DE starts to get too dry you should see it before it becomes a problem. Everything I have read says if the rootstock is watered too much it causes too much water to get in the graft slowing healing. The scion cannot get much water from the rootstock until the graft heals some so I think the misting is to stop the scion from losing too much moisture until the graft heals.

[b54red]

The first picture shows the older grafts done the first of February. They have been in and out several times and I'm hoping when I took them out this morning I won't have to bring them back in again before transplanting.

The second picture shows some of the grafts from late February that have been out of the healing chamber for several days. Half the ones that came out of the healing chambers this batch were dumped immediately. These are most of the remaining ones that look like they might survive. They were put outside this morning. The ones that are going to fail will probably wilt badly in the sun.

The third picture shows some of the really wilted ones that might have one or two that will survive. I've already dumped about 75 so far from that last big grafting attempt. It looks like about 50 might survive giving me a success rate of over 30% despite the problems of the cold weather. That is far better than I thought I would have.

Bill

[z_willus_d]

Thanks for posting Bill. That first batch looks supreme.

[Mlm1]

Bill, you have some great looking grafts. Like Naysen said, thanks for posting the pictures and also for sharing all of the information on your successes and failures.
Marla

[b54red]

This is the most gardening fun I've had since I went whole hog into heirloom tomato growing. I am anticipating the results from these experiments like I did when I first started growing all those wonderfully different tomatoes.
I know I have a lot to learn about this grafting and I'm sure I'll have lots of setbacks; but this is really fun. Dealing with fusarium every season has been a real headache and has taken a lot of the fun out of tomato growing. It's kinda like growing Brussels sprouts down here where the climate is just too warm; you never know if you will get anything from all your hard work. I'm not expecting miracles from this but it would be nice to have more plants last longer so I could at least get to taste some of the tomatoes I am planting. As I get older and my health is more of a problem replanting constantly is becoming too much of a chore. I have high hopes that this grafting will extend the life of many of my favorite heirlooms by joining them with some rootstocks with a bit more tolerance to fusarium. I guess I'll find out this season.

Bill

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Mlm1

Bill, you have some great looking grafts. Like Naysen said, thanks for posting the pictures and also for sharing all of the information on your successes and failures.
Marla

I'm seeing far more failures than successes right now; but I'm hoping to change that with my next few batches of grafts. So far I've been in the experimental mode and most of these grafts will be given away so I'll have room to plant when I graft onto the really good rootstock later this month. I'll still set out a good amount of these grafts in the garden but I'm not expecting miracles because only a few of the successful grafts have rootstock resistant to three races of fusarium.

Thanks again for the seed Marla. I can't wait to see how they perform next to the others.

Bill

[newtraditionsfarm]

My grafting adventures will soon begin:

I just sowed two 200 flats of maxifort, as well as around 2000 other tomato plants to potentially graft to.

They are situated in a 11 x 24 double polycarb greenhouse that's heated to around 80-85 during the day and 65 at night.

My chamber will be the lower shelves of my greenhouse benches which will be made into a tent using 4 mil semi opaque builder plastic, and possibly another layer of agribon on top of that for additional light protection. They wont get any direct sunlight as there will be trays on the bench above them.

One question: I'm planning on eventually transplanting all of these tomatoes from the 200 flats to 3" pots or 50-cell trays. Should I graft before or after transplanting? My instinct is to pot them up into their final homes somewhat early and give at least a week for tp shock to dissipate before attempting anything like grafting. Good idea?

[b54red]

I went ahead and potted up about a week before doing my grafting with both the scions and the rootstock. Next time I will try to do it at least 2 weeks or more before grafting especially for the rootstock. It helps for the rootstock to be firmly supported in its new home and it takes time for the roots to do that. One of the biggest problems with grafting soon after potting up is that the stalks are not held as firmly in the upright position as they will be after a couple of weeks. Leaning stalks are much less likely to have a successful graft in my experience.

[z_willus_d]

I just finished planting out that grafted Wes and Goose Creek plant I pictured above, as well as six ungrafted varieties: 2 Sungold F1, BW Red, Mystery Orange/Yellow, Madame Jardell's Black, and Green Zebra. I also set out six tomatillo plants I'd prepared (3 Verde and 3 Gigante). It was windy today, and we had hail in early/mid Spring the past two years, so I protected each plant with a Wall-O-Water. It's nice to have something of the Summer season in ground, even if snapped one of the tomatillo plants in half in the doing.

I'll post pics later next week.
-naysen