Grafting 2015

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Yak54

Well, my first attempt at grafting seems to be working mostly as planned, at least so far. I grafted 11 plants one week ago and have 9 that have taken the grafting process. So now I'm getting them used to more light slowly, and hopefully next week will move them outside to the full sunshine. The grafted plants will be about 2 weeks behind my other non-grafted siblings, but hopefully they will catch up in a few more weeks. Next year I will start this process 2-3 weeks earlier than I did this year. You live and learn.

Dan

I generally figure a month to get through the grafting, healing and hardening off process. Sometimes it is only 3 weeks but usually I give them a full month so the grafts are very strong when they go into the garden.

Bill

[Yak54]

Originally Posted by b54red

I generally figure a month to get through the grafting, healing and hardening off process. Sometimes it is only 3 weeks but usually I give them a full month so the grafts are very strong when they go into the garden.

Bill

Yes Bill, I see the wisdom in what you are saying. Gotta start earlier next year for sure.

Dan

[brooksville]

I hope this is not a silly question, but does grafting help prevent foliage diseases, what about TSWV? Both of which I am dealing with. Noticed yesterday that several plants were stunted compared to neighboring plants. The new growth looked a little off and I found a tremendous amount of thrips this weekend.

Thanks,

John

[b54red]

Originally Posted by brooksville

I hope this is not a silly question, but does grafting help prevent foliage diseases, what about TSWV? Both of which I am dealing with. Noticed yesterday that several plants were stunted compared to neighboring plants. The new growth looked a little off and I found a tremendous amount of thrips this weekend.

Thanks,

John

It doesn't help with foliage diseases or TSWV that I can see. It does however make a huge difference in soil borne problems. It can also affect the growth and production of some varieties when matched with the right rootstock. Fusarium and nematodes are awful in my garden and before I started grafting onto very resistant rootstock I would lose over half my plants before they even made any ripe fruit most years. I spent most of my season pulling out dying plants and replacing them in an effort to get a crop out of my diseased soil. Grafting is a lot of trouble and fairly expensive but the results have been well worth the effort. It is so nice having tomatoes all summer instead of just for a month or so.

Bill

[Okijames]

Hi b54red,

Curious about your final results this year comparing the various root stocks used for grafting. I'm seriously considering grafting for the 2016 season, any recommendations would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[Gardeneer]

Grafting is only beneficial if you have soil born diseases. It has no other benefits. I would think that it might have some negative effect in terms of the plant's vigor. I could be wrong !

Gardeneer

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Okijames

Hi b54red,

Curious about your final results this year comparing the various root stocks used for grafting. I'm seriously considering grafting for the 2016 season, any recommendations would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Thanks to over 10 inches of rain in four days my plants are nearly finished now. I quit taking care of them over a month ago and have still been getting a good steady supply of fruit. Since I haven't been keeping them pruned or sprayed the diseases have gotten fairly bad along with somewhat smaller fruit. Despite the terrible neglect I still have a fair number of green fruits and some ripe ones but the birds and squirrels have really taken a toll on them since mid September. It is rare for me to find a nice ripe fruit without a chunk missing.

My production this year has probably been the highest I have ever experienced despite getting a somewhat late start. I didn't set out my first plants til the first week in April which is a full month behind when I like to start setting them out. Despite the late start we had our freezer full by late June and we have had a continuous supply since then. There has rarely been a week when I didn't get at least 50 tomatoes from the garden.

From my results it seems that some varieties did phenomenally well with different rootstock so I will continue using at least three different rootstock. Some did better with one than the other but some of that could be location. I do think overall I got larger numbers of fruits in general off plants grafted to the RST-04-106-T. It did seem like I got some of my largest fruits and biggest most vigorous plants from plants grafted to both Estamino and Multifort.

Gardeneer, I think that some varieties actually show much more vigor and production after grafting while others may sometimes show less. Usually when it is less it is more of a case of having smaller fruit than anything else and that may be from the heavier than normal fruit set. I have had a number of grafts just not thrive and end up being less than stellar producers while the same variety on the same rootstock did well. I believe this is more a case of some flaw in the graft and I try to avoid using grafted plants that don't look entirely healthy when it comes time to set them out. There have been a few varieties that did not respond well to grafting but for such stingy varieties as Donskoi and both Brandywine Sudduth's and Cowlicks the difference in fruit production is amazing. I rarely get less than 20 and frequently more than 30 good sized fruits from these formerly stingy varieties and that is also with keeping them to 2 stems. I definitely wouldn't do much grafting if I didn't have to deal with the soil borne problems in my garden but with the experience I have had with increased vigor from some grafted varieties I probably would graft a few varieties for that reason alone.

Bill

[Okijames]

Thanks for the reply Bill. Brandywine Sudduth's is one where I'm hoping improve production. I switched to an Urban Farms hydroponic system this year with stunning results but Sudduth's, while vigorous, disappointed. The growing area is very small (2x14 ft) so I'm going to great lengths to maximize production. This is a zone 10a, so maybe just too hot for these puppies. They are so delicious I can't help trying so willing to "double-down" with hydro+grafting.

[Gardeneer]

I have a question:

DOES GRAFTING IMPROVE PRODUCTION/YIELD ?

Gardeneer

[JamesL]

With the right match of rootstock and scion, yes it does. A better root system provides better uptake of water and nutrients.

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by JamesL

With the right match of rootstock and scion, yes it does. A better root system provides better uptake of water and nutrients.

Thanks JamesL

Now the next question is : DO YOU KNOW A ROOT STOCK THAT CAN ACTUALLY IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY ?
I think Big Beef is one of the popular root stock. Is there other ones that better, in terms of improving productivity significantly ?

Gardeneer

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Okijames

Thanks for the reply Bill. Brandywine Sudduth's is one where I'm hoping improve production. I switched to an Urban Farms hydroponic system this year with stunning results but Sudduth's, while vigorous, disappointed. The growing area is very small (2x14 ft) so I'm going to great lengths to maximize production. This is a zone 10a, so maybe just too hot for these puppies. They are so delicious I can't help trying so willing to "double-down" with hydro+grafting.

I went back a few years and checked all my Brandywine Sudduth graft records for you and found that Estamino did the best as a rootstock. It could have been just that one year but it out performed all the others with Brandywine Sudduth as the scion. In your drier climate you might be able to get away with allowing a few more stems since Sudduth's is a fairly open plant compared to many. I usually grow it as either a double or single stem plant to avoid so many foliage diseases that are rampant in our humidity and heat. Since you are growing hydroponically you may not need to use any kind of rootstock to get good results. I have found that I get more production but that is probably because the plants live longer due to resistance to soil borne diseases. I have not noticed any huge difference with any of the rootstock I have tried with Brandywine Sudduth causing any noticeable change in plant size or fruit size. I have noticed this with some other varieties though. You might want to try one grafted and one un-grafted and see what happens.

As to your heat I think you would be well advised to plant them as early as possible for I have found that to be the biggest boost in production for all the Brandywines. They will grow and produce once it gets hot but the fruit set will drop off precipitously as the temps get higher. They are usually among the first varieties I set out every year and the earlier I set them out the better they produce.

Bill

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

Thanks JamesL

Now the next question is : DO YOU KNOW A ROOT STOCK THAT CAN ACTUALLY IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY ?
I think Big Beef is one of the popular root stock. Is there other ones that better, in terms of improving productivity significantly ?

Gardeneer

I found that I had higher fruit set on most varieties where RST-04-106-T was the rootstock. It had little affect on the size of the plant or the size of the fruit but overall almost every variety had increased fruit set over the other rootstock I have used. I did find some others that benefited greatly from both Multifort and Estamino and I want to see if they do even better with RST-04-106-T this year. A good example would be Donskoi which when grafted on either of these rootstock varieties produced much larger plants and fruit and more of them.

If you are looking for a good rootstock that doesn't give you all the disease resistance you might want to try Big Beef or Tasti-Lee. I had good results with both but they lacked the strong fusarium resistance I need in my garden. Red Mountain was another that did quite well. For me I don't think they increased production too much but rather kept the plants alive a bit longer than just the straight variety due to some soil borne resistance.

I think if you want to experiment with just increasing production through grafting you might want to give RST-04-106-T a try. I just can't be sure if it is the affect of the rootstock or just the fact that the plant doesn't start weakening from my soil problems that makes the big difference. You'll just have to do some experimenting and see. There may be many other rootstock varieties out there that increase production because I haven't tried but a few of them. Good luck.

Bill

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by b54red

I

If you are looking for a good rootstock that doesn't give you all the disease resistance you might want to try Big Beef or Tasti-Lee. I had good results with both but they lacked the strong fusarium resistance I need in my garden. Red Mountain was another that did quite well. For me I don't think they increased production too much but rather kept the plants alive a bit longer than just the straight variety due to some soil borne resistance.

I think if you want to experiment with just increasing production through grafting you might want to give RST-04-106-T a try. I just can't be sure if it is the affect of the rootstock or just the fact that the plant doesn't start weakening from my soil problems that makes the big difference. You'll just have to do some experimenting and see. There may be many other rootstock varieties out there that increase production because I haven't tried but a few of them. Good luck.

Bill

Thanks Bill
Yeah I am just interested about improving production since I have no soil borne disease issue.
I am familiar with Big Beef and I can get seeds of the rack. How about MAXIFORT ? have you tried it ? Are seeds readily available ?

Gardeneer

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

Thanks Bill
Yeah I am just interested about improving production since I have no soil borne disease issue.
I am familiar with Big Beef and I can get seeds of the rack. How about MAXIFORT ? have you tried it ? Are seeds readily available ?

Gardeneer

Multifort can be bought at Paramount Seeds. I have used them and they did good but I can't say I got a lot more production from the plants grafted to them but rather the plants were more vegetative and lived longer so in the end I did get more fruit.

I have used Big Beef and it grafts well. I don't know if it does much for production but it certainly didn't hurt production for me.

As I said earlier I have had definite production increases with some varieties paired with certain rootstock that have shown this increase year after year but for most varieties any increase in production is the result of healthier plants due to higher resistance to soil borne diseases. This was my first year using the RST-04-106-T rootstock and I had the grafts scattered all over my garden and they showed more of and increase in production on more varieties. Give me another year of using it and I can be more definitive on which varieties it helped the most and which showed no change or even a negative change.

Bill