2017 Grafting thread: Open to all

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by Fritz77

Another thing I noticed is that even people who live in supposedly colder area than me, have already started their seeds. Are you planning on growing your tomatoes in a low tunnel or in some kind of protected enviroment? If not, when are you planning on moving your grafted seedlings outside and/or into the ground? In my area there is a low risk of frost until the end of March. I remember one morning frost on April 5th many years ago, but that was an exception.

I’m planning on starting my first seeds around March 10-13.

This is the earliest I've started them, but my understanding is that I could expect to lose several weeks of growth time while the grafted plants heal.

[BigVanVader]

My FF date is around the 10th of April but I sometimes plant as early as March 25th depending on the long term forecast.

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

I think it's just too new right now, at least on the home gardening front, as I also could not find much about it.

Indeed. All I've found is De Ruiters own page extolling it's virtue as a rootstock (especially in glasshouses and for "High tech artificially lit" crops) and a few press releases from the last 18 months or so announcing it as the successor to Maxifort.

I only had the choice between the DRO141TX (described as having high vigour) and Beaufort (described as moderate vigour) and, as I'm growing outside un-irrigated I want the biggest root system I can get to gather water from far and wide - hence I chose the 141.

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

I know Bill has cautioned us many times to start rootstock later than scion seeds, but this one just might be an exception to that.

I just sowed enough rootstock seed for my main crop this morning -- most will be grafted onto DRO, with just five varieties also going onto RST for comparison. I'll keep you posted on what happens with DRO in this batch, as well as continue updates on the first four.

That's really good of you. The more info we can gather and share the better we'll all be able to do.
Cheers,
Shaun.

[heirloomtomaguy]

Alright got 3 rootstock and scions that matched up for size finally. They were a touch small for the silcone 2.0 clips so i put the pinch move on them with the spring grafting clips. It worked pretty good and the spring clips rest perfect on the side of the plastic pots. It dawned on me i left the cotyledons on but they are already in the healing chamber and i dont want to disturb them. The three combos i got were

Maxifort/Brutus
Maxifort/Red Barn
Estamino/Giant Roo

[BigVanVader]

Looks good, I'd recommend getting some 1.5mm clips though. I use them more than any size and smaller plants seem to recover much better.

[heirloomtomaguy]

Yeah i need to order some up real quick. But by the time they get here it will be too late.

[b54red]

Wow I'm glad I brought in all my grafts that I had outside last night. I don't know if we had a frost but it got down to 34 here which was a surprise. I doubt it would have killed any of them but it might have bronzed them up and made them look bad for a few days.
We are supposed to get down in the very low 40s again on Friday. I have three flats of about 24 plants each potted up and outside hardening off right now. I have two other flats still on the porch and they are still a bit small for potting up into potting soil.

If I can find the time I would like to graft some of the root stock tops I rooted with some of my initial seedling varieties but I may have waited a bit long as they are all getting very tall and may be too big for any of my grafting clips. My second batch of seedlings will probably be ready to graft in about a week or so. They are now 3 to 4 inches tall for the most part and growing much faster than my first planting did with this mostly hot weather we are having. Hard to believe it was 85 yesterday and 34 last night.

Bill

[BigVanVader]

Sounds like the weather here. I have a lot of transplanting to do myself. It's still early for me to be potting up. Guess I'm going to have a lot of big plants to sell this year. Hopefully they don't start blooming to early.

[jtjmartin]

I just grafted my first two plants: SOO and Prue with the RST rootstock.

I used the Bill-method with the trimmed roots, DE, etc. I thought for sure they were big enough for the 2 mm clips but the 1.5 fit perfectly. I'm glad I trimmed the scion top before making the 45 degree cut across rootstock and scion . . . because it's too easy to mix the tops up!

I used a magnifying glass and the grafts seem to line up great. The two grafts - and the two RST tops- are in my smallest healing chamber which has a good mist on the tops and sides.

Fingers crossed!

Jeff

[heirloomtomaguy]

All 3 of my first round of grafts are still going strong so far. Got 5 more grafted tonight they are

Estamino/Brutus
Estamino/Delicious
Estamino/Giant Roo
Estamino/Mega Marv
Maxifort/Big Zac F7

Red Barn is way bigger than any of the rootstock so i suppose i will only have 1 grafted from the first set. The first set are still in the healing chamber and are set to come out tomorrow. I started leaving the cotyledons on the scion and cutting them off if the rootstock. It helps to tell the two tops apart when i cut the two side by side at the same time. Here are a few pics.

[b54red]

You are making your grafts awfully low on the root stock. I have trouble with roots coming down from the scion when I graft that low on the plant. It may be because of our humidity but roots will form on the scion when the graft juncture is an inch from the soil line and grow down into the soil sometimes soon after planting out. Sometimes it can't be helped, but I try to get most of my grafts above the root stock cotyledons if possible. When grafting above the cotyledons I have the problem of having to keep pinching off suckers below the graft juncture for a while; but it is worth it for me with my severe soil born problems. It also makes planting out much easier. Just something to consider in your future grafts.

Bill

[BigVanVader]

To update I've lost a few of my latest grafts. I think maybe they were to small. The stems rotted through. I should be able to graft another round soon.

[heirloomtomaguy]

Thanks Bill. I burried them a bit to low so i will bring them up a half inch or so.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by heirloomtomaguy

Thanks Bill. I burried them a bit to low so i will bring them up a half inch or so.

You can do that when you pot them up to potting soil or when they are ready to set out. Just brush away some of the DE on top and pinch off some of the exposed roots.

Bill

[b54red]

Originally Posted by BigVanVader

To update I've lost a few of my latest grafts. I think maybe they were to small. The stems rotted through. I should be able to graft another round soon.

Probably damping off. It happens more often with small stems but it can happen with larger stems if they are left in a humidity chamber too long.

I just got through grafting with some really big seedlings. I was trying to use up those rooted root stock tops and some of them were very large over a foot tall. Luckily I could still get most of them grafted using 3mm grafting clips. By the time I was finished most of them were wilting pretty bad. I misted the chamber well and closed it up and covered it with a towel and will leave it closed for two days. I don't expect the high success rate with these that I got with the normal sized seedlings. I should have used most of them a couple of weeks ago but didn't have the time to fool with them and since they are basically going to be giveaways if any of them survive. I still have enough to do another chamber tomorrow so I may do some more.

My second batch of seedlings will be ready to start grafting with in another week or so. They are getting true leaves but the stems are still very small on most of them and my scions are way behind my root stock even after waiting a week between plantings. When they are ready I won't have much time to get them done before they are too large with the warming weather they just grow too fast to keep up with sometimes.

Bill