Post for Photos of Grafted Plants

[z_willus_d]

We have an enormous thread running about grafting here:
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=26079

Rather than continue to post my garden pictures of grafted tomato varieties to that thread, I thought it might be better to start a new thread in the Photo Gallery forum where folks involved with grafting can post pictures and provide updates on their progress in the garden with the grafted plants.

I'd love to see A-B comparisons of the same variety grafted vs. un-grafted. It would be nice to also get yield reports on the same. Diseases resistance; pest; etc... all tied back to photos and a log.

Here's my first contribution. Look forward to seeing yours.
Thanks,
-naysen

Pic1(IMAG0408)- This is a view of my Tainer/pot garden on the patio with the new raised/retaining-wall bed on top of my hillside in the background. That represents about one half of my tomato vines and garden.
Pic2(IMAG0401)- This shows what a great, productive tomato Brokenbar's Costoluto Genovese strain can be. Last year it started out great, though not quite this great, but later in the year it went down to pests and disease. So far, this grafted plant is performing excellent with many many 1/2/3" fruits on the way.
Pic3(IMAG0402)- Shows some of the fruit from my Pink Berkley Tie Dye vine. My experience in the past is that these tend to go down to black mold/fungus. I haven't seen that problem yet on this grafted plant. It's doing fairly well.
Pic4(IMAG0403)- Here we see the Spaghetti Squash that's taken over half the garden. In this case it's spreading through the grafted Dester plant, which is one of my worst vines in the garden. This Dester looks ok, and seems reasonably healthy and strong, but it hasn't put out many blossoms. Those that it has put out are somewhat malformed with little pollen, and as a consequence of all this, I've not managed to set a single fruit on this six foot vine.
Pic5/6(IMAG0404/405)- Here we have my un-grafted Green Zebra plant. This vine is going down fast to mold/fungus. It's not obvious from the picture, but over 50% of the foliage has dropped blackened by the moldy death. I seriously doubt this vine will manage to ripen all the fruit it's set, but I hope I'm wrong.
Pic7(IMAG0406)- Here's another un-grafted plant, a Brandywine red. BW Red is usually pretty hardy, but in this case it's succumb to the same mold/fungal problems as the un-grafted Green Zebra. I'm showing some of the fruit it set before the defoliation, but you can see in Pic8(IMAGE0507) that I'm already getting blossom end rot due to the stress on the plant. I should have grafted this one.
Pic9(IMAG0409)- On a brighter note, I've got my first blushing beefsteak in this 4" Vintage Wine tomato. There are plenty more from where that came, and despite some leaf necrosis on this grafted fine, I'm hopeful for a long, fruitful season.
Pic10(IMAG0410)- Here you can see the monstrosity that is my grafted Pruden's Purple (right) and Brandywine Sudduths (left).
Pic11(IMAG0411)- This is my grafted heshpole plant. It has a very strange growth pattern, with these lanky, enormous leaves. The fruit kind of looks like Wes, but it's so far less prolific in setting. The jury is going to remain out on this one until I can taste the tomatoes. If they don't beat Wes but are similar, I'll nix it in the future.
Pic12(IMAG0412)- Here's a very different looking (from Pics5/6) grafted Green Zebra vine. No signs of mold/fungus issues. It's setting fruit and doing quite well. I hope it stays that way.
Pic13(IMAG0413)- Showing some of the fruit on my enormous Wes plant (8' tall now). It's set a lot on the lower trusses, but the upper are just dropping dried up, thrips infested blossoms now. Pic14(IMAG0414) shows some of the dying leaves/branches that I haven't managed to figure out on the Wes.
Pic15(IMAG0415)- Another stellar plant is my grafted Goose Creek. It's set more beautiful tomatoes than any of my other vines. Last year was somewhat similar but then over half of them developed BER. I hope the added vigor of the Maxifort rootstock will enable this plant to ripen all of it's fruit w/out issue this season. Pic16(IMAG0416) shows an upward tilting view of this same uber vine.
Pic17(IMAGE017) is of my grafted Russo Sicilian Togetta. It was planted a couple weeks after the preceding plants, but it's setting fruit well (see pic18) and has no signs of disease yet.
Pic19(IMAG0419) shows an overhead of my grafted Brandywine from Croatia. It's doing about as well as the RST from above.
Pic20(IMAG0420) shows an overhead of one of 5 or 6 grafted KBX I'm growing. This is the only one to actually set fruit so far (see pic 21). I hope the other catch up.
Pic22(IMAG0426) is of one of my grafted Van Wert Ohio vines. It's really a stellar plant even un-grafted, so I'm not surprised to find this grafted vine to be setting plenty of fruit on all sorts of offshoots (see Pic23).
Pic24(IMAG0428) shows the fruit set from my grafted BW Cowlicks. The plants started off doing well, but it's got some kind of pest issue (maybe thrips). A number of vines in the general vicinity are suffering from similar issues.
Pic25(IMAG0430) shows one of two grafted Casino vines. I thought it was doing well (see fruit on pic26), but then I noticed the fruit on the next truss up was all BER'd - shoot! (pic27)
Pic28(IMAG0433) shows the behemoth that is my grafted Madam Jardell's Black. It's now larger and far more productive than it's un-grafted sibling. The un-grafted one is dying from mold/fungus, while this one is going to the sky. Check out some of the fruit set in Pics29/30 (IMAG0434/435). I've never tasted this fruit, and I hope it comes through in the taste department as much as it has in the vigor on vigor fruiting.

[Mlm1]

Wow, you've got some nice looking plants and fruit. It's nice to see the grafting may be helpful in preventing/decreasing some of your diseases. I'll try to add my pictures to this thread soon.
Marla

[z_willus_d]

Hi Marla, thanks for posting. I look forward with great anticipation to viewing your pics.

I hope others find this thread and post pics of their grafted plants occasionally.
-naysen

[rnewste]

Here are the two grafted plants Marla sent me, having fun in an EarthTainer:



I am gobsmacked by the vigor of the stems on the scion:



This must be due to the Maxifort rootstock.

Raybo

[z_willus_d]

Hi Ray, thanks for posting. Those are a set of manly forearms on the vines. What variety are the scion? When were they planted out? And I'm sorry there don't seem to be more flowers yet. I'm sure they'll fill in. It looks like you hit them with a preemptive Daconil spray, which is probably wise given the vigor.
-naysen

[rnewste]

Naysen,

The variety (one on the right) is Couilles de Tareau. I planted them on April 9, and did a preventative spray of Daconil on May 3. You can see the residue on the lower leaves. I don't plan on anymore spraying in the future - want to see how disease tolerant the grafted plants will be.

Raybo

[z_willus_d]

Gotcha. Thanks again for posting.
-n

[rnewste]

Naysen,

While sitting out in the middle of the garden this afternoon, I've been trying to compute how I am going to propagate 60 Maxifort rootstock, along with 60 scion varieties come January 10, in order to assure I end up with 30 grafted healthy plants for my spring 2014 planting...

[rwsacto]

A few Pix,

The first is a Bloody Butcher on Celebrity rootstock next to its ungrafted twin in an Earthtainer. They are neck and neck.

The second is Black & Red Boar with a cleft graft on Celebrity rootstock in an Earthtainer.

Third in the hit parade is Black Krim on Celebrity. It is doing fine but its ungrafted mate is the smallest in the bed.

Fourth is Cherokee Purple on Celebrity Rootstock.

Fifth is Chinese on Maxifort rootstock, larger than its ungrafted twin

The ones on Maxifort are on steroids vegetatively but skimpy on fruitset.

Celebrity rootstock does not show noticeably greater growth or fruitset so far. None of my grafts are showing adventitious roots or shoots.

Rick

[z_willus_d]

Originally Posted by rnewste

Naysen,

While sitting out in the middle of the garden this afternoon, I've been trying to compute how I am going to propagate 60 Maxifort rootstock, along with 60 scion varieties come January 10, in order to assure I end up with 30 grafted healthy plants for my spring 2014 planting...

Ray, you're wise to contemplate. The problem is multifaceted. It's not just about getting 2x the rootstock in place for your 1x scion ranks. It's also a question of timing. The Maxifort rootstock are tricky with erratic germination rates. That said, they can be a bit slow to grow even after germination; but then at some point they take off and out grow standard tomato varieties. My experience has been that the somewhat larger diameter (3mm-ish) grafts take far better than the smaller, younger ones. Too big can be trouble too. Well, I could go on and on, but it's probably better for you to just read through the grafting thread if you haven't already. In the end, I think the process is kind of like an craft, and you'll just have to find your method. I'm sure you'll do better than I did.
-naysen

[z_willus_d]

Hi Rick- great pics. I'm glad that you're doing it right, with the side-by-side grafted/un-grafted pairings in Earthtainers, etc. I think you'll have a lot of good data to report back as the season progresses. I also noticed that the Maxifort can be overwhelming on the vegetative front. I think there is probably a second level of expertise to learn in this grafting business to figure out which scions can benefit most from the vigor of Maxifort vs. say a less vigorous root-stock. For my part, I am so far very impressed with the foliar health of my grafted plants. They seem to be hardier and more resistance to fungal/mold type issues.

One of the areas I'm very interested to see about is how well they do with fighting BER. Every year, certain varieties really get hit hard by BER in my gardens. For instance, Goose Creek last year was a heavy setter with about 50% BER loss. This year on Maxifort, my two Goose Creek plants are loaded top to bottom with tomatoes of all sizes from 1/4" to 6" across. I will be floored if I can manage to ripen without BER all those green tomatoes.

Incidentally, the tomatoes on your Black Krim truss are looking nice.

-naysen

[roper2008]

I saw a grafted plant at McDonald's Nursery here, and they
wanted $16 or $18 for the Burpee plant. I know they cost
more but that's crazy.

[lycoperson]

Originally Posted by z_willus_d

...
One of the areas I'm very interested to see about is how well they do with fighting BER. Every year, certain varieties really get hit hard by BER in my gardens. For instance, Goose Creek last year was a heavy setter with about 50% BER loss. This year on Maxifort, my two Goose Creek plants are loaded top to bottom with tomatoes of all sizes from 1/4" to 6" across. I will be floored if I can manage to ripen without BER all those green tomatoes.
...
-naysen

Have you considered cluster and leaf pruning? I like to control both the number of fruits per truss and the number of leaves to balance the plant better. Off topic for here, but worth discussing elsewhere.

I will have to look closely at my grafted plants and compare the incidence of BER. I haven't noticed any difference casually.

[z_willus_d]

Lyco, I've always been so obsessed with just setting as much fruit as possible that I haven't taken the art to that next level of actually being intelligent about fruit set dispersion, load balancing, etc. If I can get to where I really understand a variety, it's limits, and how/when/where it will set fruit (and I'm getting there for a few now), I think I will start pruning my fruit clusters to optimize the end product.

Vegetative pruning for me is a balance between a lot of factors -- how much energy to put into removing the energy generating leaves/branches, where to have the plant focus it's energy for setting fruit, having enough to shade the fruit, not having so much as to stifle airflow and temp fungal/mold issues, etc. I have been lazy with this since I started employing the XL Burpee 18" square tomato cages, which provide a lot of volume for growth. Now that I'm grafting onto such vigorous root stock, I think I need to start pruning in the cages to better control the growth of some of the scions. Several of my plants have already filled their entire square cages, plus extension, up about 8', and it's only late May. We have several months left of viable season for the indeterminates here.
-naysen

[DavidP]

I've only got 3 grafted plants and there accompanying non grafted compatriots. I've done some grafting for about three yrs but still not sure if its a major boon. Often I seem to get large amounts of growth but not so great fruiting. Trying alllowing plants to grow american style un pruned and pruned to single stem as well. Don't have too much problem with foliage disease here but have potential for nematodes althouigh hasn't been too bad as yet although its a fairly newly cultivated piece of land.
Anyway this is my attempt at some level of controlled expt, would be better if my grafting technique had a better success rate and I had less gophers.

Plants with a yellow label are grafted onto Maxifort

Red Brandywine growing unpruned (yellow label, left grafted, right white label ungrafted)




Red brandywine pruned to a single stem grafted(yellow label right, white label ungrafted on left)




Cherokee purple grafted (yellow label on left- ungrafted white label on right)




So far looks like the unpruned grafted plant is doing slightly better than its compatriot having now overtaken it. However can't see really well from the photo that the grafted plant has no open flowers as yet but the ungrafted one does.

The pruned plants both seem like the ungrafted one is doing somewhat better at least for now. All were sown pretty much the same week and obviously the trauma of grafting/healing caused a large setback but largely they seem to have caught up now. Hope to update as my season progresses. More plants next yr so I don't have an n of 1.