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Old May 19, 2020   #1
TerpGal
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Default Grafting dwarfs

Good morning! It has been some time since I posted here. Since then I have moved to a new house where there is heavy soil disease pressure (fusarium) and for the last 3 seasons I have lost all my tomatoes by July. I am attempting grafting this year. I used Maxifort as my rootstock. I am also trying a few of the dwarfs for the first time this year too. I was wondering if anyone has tried grafting the dwarf varieties. Of 6 dwarfs I grafted 3 took. Of the 8 regular indeterminate I grafted 6 survived. I was just wondering if anyone has tried grafting dwarfs did it effect the growth habit of the plant at all? I am excited to see how these do. I don't really need a ton of production, I am planning on 7 plants for 2 people. I would just like to have my plants survive the season.
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Old May 21, 2020   #2
b54red
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I do a lot of grafting but have never dealt with dwarf varieties. I can say that some varieties of root stock will definitely affect the size and vigor of the scion. Maxifort is one of the more vegetative varieties that I tried and on some of the rather smaller indeterminate varieties it increased the size of the plant considerably. It also increased the fruit size on some of the varieties but not by much. But if I had to guess I would expect some of the resulting grafted dwarf plants will turn out larger than you are used to and they will probably need more pruning. But if fusarium is your problem you should have plants that live much longer and produce much longer.

Bill
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Old May 22, 2020   #3
Greatgardens
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Do let us know how your grafted dwarfs do! It would be great general information for growers of dwarfs. (like me). Which dwarfs were successful?
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Old May 31, 2020   #4
Father'sDaughter
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I've thought about it now that I'm starting to grow released varieties. I'm betting I would have to start the Dwarfs well before the rootstock to get matching stem sizes since the Dwarfs are so petite. The DRO141TX rootstock seems to be pretty neutral as far as its effect on indeterminates, so maybe I'll give a few a try next year.

Please let us know how yours do.
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Old June 14, 2021   #5
TerpGal
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So I am reviving this a year later. Things got away from me with the pandemic like I am sure it did for a lot of you. Of the grafts I did, Rosella Crimson amd Caitydid made it. I also had a non grafted Rosella Crimson and Caitydid, planted in a new area of the yard with no fusarium. I honestly think the non grafted did better. The vegetative growth on the dwarves really was epic. The problem with this, given the squatty nature of the dwarves was that there was a lot of very dense leaf matter. Once the summer rain and humidity kicked in I had a real fungal problem. I also think the grafted and non grafted had similar production and fruit size. Overall I was a little underwhelmed with the grafting. My plants did live until frost but the vegetative growth far outpaced production on all my plants and I do prune to 1 leader. Maybe a different rootstock would be better. I may have to test this next year. I didn't do any grafts for this year.
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Old June 15, 2021   #6
zipcode
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OP tomatoes tend to be finicky in terms of fruit setting, especially beefsteak types, so I can see how an overly vegetative rootstock could be detrimental. The current star of tests is Emperador from R|Z, supposedly has a more generative nature while also being very vegetative, Maxifort is now considered an 'old' hybrid. The problem is one can only find it in bulk, at least here in Europe.
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