Tomato Grafting

After a week of considerable rain.


The Tumbling Tom/Indigo Rose grafted plant.


Fruits are larger than expected (compared to the 10p coin).

 

The Indigo Rose/Osprey grafted plants are now 6' plus.

 

Almost fully ripe.



They turn a bronze red colour when they do.

However, leaving them on the vine for too long under the hot blazing sun will increase the risk of them splitting.

Grafting does reduce the risk of this from happening but does not entirely eliminate it with this variety.

 

The single non grafted Indigo Rose is now seriously infected with blight.


It started as a thumb sized patch twelve days ago but has now spread along the entire length of the main stem.



The blight originated from an unkempt plot which has now been cleared.

I will leave the infected plant as-is for another week to test whether or not the grafts are blight tolerant.

 

Commiserations, JWK.

Surprisingly, blight infection has not been so widespread. In fact, the grafted plant directly next to the infected non grafted plant has not been affected at all.

Before.


Healthy stem.


Blight infected stem.


After.


These will be ripened off indoors.



The other two grafted plants show only very minor infection to the extremities of two or three branches.



Incidentally, the black markings on the top surface of the leaves are signs of fertiliser sun scorch - that the soil mix was too rich in fertiliser to begin with (I used fish blood and bone meal fertiliser at the recommended dosage to freshen the spent compost and top soil mix). They are definitely not the signs of blight.

 

Four days ago: Tumbling Toms naturally dying down.


You can just about make out the vertical graft union of the grafted Tumbling Tom/Indigo Rose plant.



Overall, the yield of the Tumbling Toms was about the same as last year's non grafted Tumbling Toms - I personally took home about 4.5kg and gave away the remaining.

The grafted Tumbling Tom did produce fruit that was noticeably larger and was the first to ripen.

However, that was no consolation as the flavour of the tomatoes was affected by the wet weather.

It was great tasting at the initial handfuls but quickly tapered off after that as the season progressed. If left to ripen further indoors at room temperature for two or three days, the taste did improve.

 

The "Tumbling Tom"/Picasso grafts.


Signs of blight on some of the stems.


So it was time for the final tomato harvest.




After some digging.


Stem thickness differences makes the graft union quite obvious.


After a quick wash.



Tomato yield was about 800g per plant.

Total potato yield was 2.48kg.

Some of the tubers exhibited minor signs of potato scab. This tells me that growing conditions need to be slightly more acidic.

Overall, I am quite happy with the outcome of this grafting trial.

For next year, in order to increase air flow to prevent blight, I will need to prune suckers and top each plant after five trusses. That is, if the scions turn out to be indeterminates.

 

Time to uproot the Indigo Rose/Osprey grafts.


The double.


Weird tinge to the pictures due to overcast atmospheric conditions (ie hurricane 1987+30)


The single.




The total potato harvest (left: from the double, right: from the single).



For this particular pairing, grafting appears to confer increased blight resistance to the scion.

This pairing is also well matched in terms of the rate at which they reach maturity - a rate where fruit production and tuber production seems to be at the optimum.

Tomato yield was about 1kg per plant.

Total potato yield was 4.85kg.

 

Hello, I'm trying grafting for the first time this year and grafted some tomatoes about 4 days ago now. They seem to be surviving but not sure how to proceed from here. They are in a propagator in a darkish corner of the kitchen.

any advice would be welcome. Should I remove the cover, or move into more light and when...?

 

Keep the lid on to maintain humidity and warmth. The compost should be just moist but not wet otherwise the scion will send out roots in mid air as the water evaporates and condenses again.

To aid healing, I hear that misting with Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) solution works pretty well.

I usually keep mine in the dark for about 2-3 days then gradually introduce them to light by day 7. My room temperature is about 16-20°C. I keep the lid on for 14 days then gradually open it on the 15th day.

If the scion still looks floppy after all this time then trim off more leaves.

It is important not to rush the healing process.

 

Thank you very much for the reply but Oh dear, I'm due to go away for a week from 2nd May (terrible time I know but...). I'll have to see how they are doing by then and may be leave the propagator with my daughter if she will have it. I had hoped they could be planted out by then but it is not looking very likely as they were only operated on on the 17th.