Tomato Grafting

Now that's a really clever idea. It's the photo the result of the top of an amputated rootstock. If so it looks a healthy plant. This certainly needs some follow up. Good thinking....!

 

@JWK Has kindly sent me one of his Gigantomo (giant) tomatoes grafted onto Estamino rootstock.

My initial reaction was it appeared to be suffering from 'growlight stress', apparently the grafting procedure requires an earlier start to overcome the period of setback whilst the graft takes and the plant gets going again (with increased vigour), but potting up + a light feed + putting in heated greenhouse and giving a mix of natural light and just an odd 'boost' from growlights.

The big difference between a grafted plant and those I grow from seed is that I keep burying them deeper and deeper from the very first transplant, through every potting up stage right through to planting in polytunnel borders when plants are laid at an angle and even more stem is buried, but grafted plants can't be buried deeper than the graft.

But it's going to be really interesting to compare grafted Gigantomo growth/sizes against my seed grown plants (sown around the time JWK's were being grafted), which I grow using the methods described here http://www.giantpumpkin.com/GiantVegetablesBook.htm#Tomatoes

 

The stem above the graft joint has the beginnings of roots forming on the stem, do these stop growing once the graft is established, or does the scion need constant watching to ensure it's not making efforts to produce it's own roots?

On a couple of occasions over the years, I've noticed (non-grafted) tomatoes producing roots on their stems above soil level, and the reason has been root disease/failure.

 

@JWK Would it be possible for the rootstock to have a greater length of stem so that some could be buried to produce an even bigger vigorous rootball?

 

Here is my modest attempt for 2016.

B&Q Desiree seed potato rootstock potting up - 1st March 2016.


Morrisons "Grape" cherry tomato scion - 13th April 2016.


The healing chamber (which fits nicely inside black plastic bin liners to exclude light).


Checking on progress, 8 days after grafting - 21st April 2016.


Sending out roots in search of moisture, aeroponics style.


Observation: the humidity is too high.




The way I see it, the trickiest part with grafting soft stems is the care needed in controlling the growing conditions: light, temperature and moisture levels.

I grafted 10 plants of these two combinations aiming to get atleast 5 successes.

Three are expected to fail simply because the rootstock were not of the desired quality - Desiree potato plants sometimes form hollow stems which are difficult to graft. These hollow sections are located at the pinkish/brown parts of the stem in picture 2 above.

The perfect rootstock plant would be a tall, solid stem so that after you graft it, it can be planted deep or earthed up.

 

HI JWK
Long time sorry. Busy+ and iPad on the blink. Good to see others grafting also. Very interested in your second grafting success with the tips of the first batch. I will certainly be doing that next year. My current Tom grafts going well despite persistent poor weather

 

See what I mean. iPad just posted this mid sentence. ANyway will try and upload a few photos later. Will get laptop out. Hope you keeping ok.

 

Grafts in greenhouse. Supporting on string with clips this year so I can lean and drop and extend growing height for more trusses



By the way Here's that grafted aubergine I overwintered