Grafting tomatoes

I find grafted tomatoes do a lot better in the greenhouse soil than on their own roots. Last year, only 8 plants took out of about 15 I grafted. I think I was too optimistic regarding the germination rate of the rootstock. I sowed seed on the 3rd March but didn't get the first ripe tomatoes till mid July probably and had only 3kg off these 8 by mid August while 9 not grafted in a small greenhouse had yielded 18kg by the same date. So last year it looks like grafting set the plants back about 3 to 4 weeks. One of the 8, an orange banana, didn't do at all well but I lost the bottom 4 trusses to slugs which seem to really like plum tomatoes.

So this year I will probably sow the seeds about the 21st Feb. along with peppers, chillies and aubergines. I'll sow a few peppers, chillies and aubergines tomorrow as they are slower growing than tomatoes and, if I have any rootstocks spare, I'll try grafting some of these onto  tomato rootstocks to see if it helps them as well.

As an experiment, I'll plant some Roma VF where I know tomatoes do not thrive in the greenhouse s they are supposed to have some resistance to soil diseases. If they do OK, I would then try using them as a rootstock.

So one job tomorrow is checking I've still got enough silicone grafting clips. I bought 50 a couple of years ago. Hopefully not too many are lost as not likely available in time due to covid ordering restrictions.

Tomatoes and rootstock were sown 24th Feb. a bit earlier than last year. 40 rootstock seeds sown 35 germinated but 5 are a bit weedy looking so will probably use 30.
Potted on the rootstock seedlings today so they have time to settle down before being grafted. All the tomatoes germinated around the 1st March

Very interesting Mark any chance you can take photos along the way?

What IS a rootstock seeding?

I don’t understand what your doing at all Mark please explain

The rootstock is a variety (in my case F1 submarine) that is resistant to viruses and other tomato ailments. In my greenhouse I have either or both of verticillum and fusarium wilts caused by fungi. The plants would crop very poorly and finish early if planted there. I'm not keen on growbags as they need watching for over/under watering and probably cost more than the submarines (50 seeds for £9.00).

So I'm growing tomato plants I want (gardeners delight, alicante...) and in a short while, I'll cut the tops off the submarines and replace them with tops cut off the tomatoes I want. I can then plant them out (when the cuts have healed and it's a bit warmer) in the greenhouse border.

I've done this successfully for the last couple of years with yields of 109kg from 20 plants in 2018, 78kg from 20 in 2019 and 41kg from 8 plants last year.

So far they just look like small tomato seedlings which I think you have all seen.

Years ago I did graft a tomato onto a potato by splicing and tying with raffia. From memory tomato grew well but tatties were disappointing.

The rootstock is a variety (in my case F1 submarine) that is resistant to viruses and other tomato ailments. In my greenhouse I have either or both of verticillum and fusarium wilts caused by fungi. The plants would crop very poorly and finish early if planted there.

Apparently vermicompost can help protect plants from verticillium and fusarium. Also there's a fungus called Trichoderma which helps, you can buy it in granular form from a few places.

What I have done in the past is dig out a square hole with a border spade and fill it with compost to plant into. That works for a while and I would get 4 or 5 possibly trusses before the plants start to suffer. So any good compost is helpful. I want to see how roma vf does this year another possibility is ace 55 vf.

Well I grafted them today.

what they looked like to start with, rootstocks in small individual pots, tomato plants still in pots they were sown in. This might be a bit of a mistake as they were more drawn and tender than the rootstocks.

         

Equipment needed: razor and silicone grafting clips. some people use sellotape but these clips are quite cheap and easy to use.

   

First about 45 - 60degree cut through the rootstock.

   

put the clip on.

   

Then cut the tomato to graft at the same angle about as the rootstock and gently push that into the top of the clip so the 2 surfaces meet. I always have the pointed end on the rootstock stem facing the same way in the clip so I can push the stem of the graft in, in the same direction each time.

   

It is then a matter of having somewhere out of direct sunlight that is warm with moist air to put them. I put them in an old propagator with a damp cloth at the bottom, in a corner of the kitchen for a few days. This picture is just before putting the lid on.

   

I've processed 30 plants, a mix of Alicante, gardeners delight, black russian, orange banana and galina. Hoping to get 20 plants for the greenhouse.

I learn something new every day! Thanks Mark.