Results and thoughts on rootstock varieties

b54red · June 9, 2013

I am starting to notice a few things about plants behavior on different rootstock varieties and would love to hear the things others are finding out with their grafting experiments.

Some but not all of the indeterminate heirloom varieties grafted onto determinate rootstock are growing smaller plants. I used a determinate Floralina in a good number of my first successful grafts. Many of the scions are not getting as large as I would expect but they are setting fruit very well. The most notable is my Brandywine Sudduth's on Floralina. The plant is barely 5 feet tall when it should be at least 7 feet by now but it is setting more fruit than I have gotten in the past from it and it is easier to manage. The other ones that are noticeably smaller are Giant Belgium on Tasti-Lee, and Omar's Lebanese on Tasti-Lee. Several of the scions have grown at least as large as normal on the determinate rootstock and one is even bigger and that is T-6 on Floralina. All have fruit set far beyond normal for me. I'm wondering if the determinate rootstock has any influence on the early heavy fruit set I have seen on almost all of the plants grafted onto determinate rootstock.

One thing I have noticed on my grafts that were done on the very vigorous rootstock I call the fluke, is the hearts are so vigorous that from a distance they don't even look much like hearts. They are not nearly so wispy as I usually see and are needing much more pruning to keep them open.

Which rootstock are you having the best luck with when it comes to accepting the grafts? And which scions seem to be the least successful when grafting. For me the two rootstocks that have accepted the grafts the best have been my fluke tomato and Floralina closely followed by Amelia. The one I have had the least success with is Multifort. KBX and Golden Ponderosa have been very hard to graft for me and Cherokee Purple and Prudens Purple were the easiest.

I know it is early in the season and I'm sure I will find different things about many of my grafts that I am not aware of now so I will try to keep posting my findings. I am still grafting and intend to keep doing it till I run out of plants to graft to. Right now I am starting suckers that I prune off to use for grafting later. I am limited in my rootstock selection to varieties that show a strong resistance to fusarium wilt so many of the possible rootstock are not feasible for me to use; but I would still like to hear what others are finding out as the season progresses.

Bill

Delerium · June 9, 2013

I have been using Super Beefsteak & Green Giant as root stocks with very good results. I have expanded my selection to Italian Heirloom, Indian Stripe, Big Beef & Beef Master that have all done pretty good at taking scions. At this moment i am growing the Maxifort, Multifort & Beaufort to test against the ones mentioned above.

I just started a new batch of grafts today with a plant that i almost discarded because i was using it as scions for grafting. Unfortunately i have no idea what it is. The Stems are Massive for a plant under 2 foot. The suckers alone are almost half inch.

I used some wimpy stingy scion varieties to graft on to this unknown plant (scions - Emmy, Prudens Purple & Big Rainbow). Hopefully i can report back on them in a month or so.

tjg911 · June 28, 2013

bill what is fluke rootstock? is fluke a general term meaning any variety or is fluke a variety of tomato?

tom

DavidP · June 29, 2013

The only ones I've tried are Maxifort, Beaufort and He-Man. Of those I'd say He-Man had the most vigorous rootstock but doesn't seem too available in the US, its a Japanese bred variety.
This year just using Maxifort and all seems well so far, hope it survives a couple of forecasted days at 109 this weekend.

I might try some of these varieties in the link below next year. Apparently they have complete resistance to nematodes whereas Maxifort has moderate resistance. Since thats pretty much the only problem around here might try those instead. Not sure how much of a difference moderate to complete is though.

http://www.dpseeds.com/rootstock

b54red · June 29, 2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by tjg911

bill what is fluke rootstock? is fluke a general term meaning any variety or is fluke a variety of tomato?

tom

It was just a tomato that grew out of my Indian Stripe seeds two years ago and it lasted from the time I put it out in early June til it froze with no fusarium problems or nematode problems. I planted it last year in my first planting in March and it lasted for the full nine month season. It produced medium to small fruits that were okay tasting so I decided to save a bunch of the seed and then used them to grow out rootstock. It was a tremendously vigorous grower both years and with the obvious fusarium resistance I thought it might be okay as a rootstock.

Bill

tjg911 · June 30, 2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by b54red

It was just a tomato that grew out of my Indian Stripe seeds two years ago and it lasted from the time I put it out in early June til it froze with no fusarium problems or nematode problems. I planted it last year in my first planting in March and it lasted for the full nine month season. It produced medium to small fruits that were okay tasting so I decided to save a bunch of the seed and then used them to grow out rootstock. It was a tremendously vigorous grower both years and with the obvious fusarium resistance I thought it might be okay as a rootstock.

Bill

thanks bill.

tom

Deborah · June 29, 2013

That baby girl is beautiful. Really is.
I've been meaning to ask, does a graft affect the tomato's flavor, or just make for a stronger plant?

camochef · June 30, 2013

Last year I grew a German Johnson-Benton Strain grafted to Maxifort rootstock. It was the last little plant into my garden...weeks behind all the others.
It quickly caught up to and surpassed everything else out there, including the German Johnson-Benton Strain from seed directly across from it. While it wasn't the first to get ripe tomatoes, It did produce much larger and many more than anything else out there. They were the best tomato I ever tasted!
Strong statement, I know, and I've grown thousands of different tomatoes over the last 50 years or more.

Here's the most interesting part: I started 11 of them from seed I saved from this wonderful plant, (mainly due to colder temps preventing good germination), eventually they all germinated. All 11 were potato leafed! The grafted plant was regular leafed as was the one across the aisle grown from seed. As they should have been.
They had the largest potato leaves I think I've ever seen, and I grow many Brandywines and other varieties with large potato leaves. Since the seed I planted came from different tomatoes from that grafted plant, I cannot believe that all eleven were crossed with something else.
Also, I'm extremely careful handling my seeds and I can assure you there was no seed mix-up or mishandling. has anyone else seen a change in leaf type from grafted plants?
I no longer have any seeds to experiment with although I did send out seeds to friends and will soon be getting results back from them.
Enjoy!
Camo

June 9, 2013	#1
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	Results and thoughts on rootstock varieties I am starting to notice a few things about plants behavior on different rootstock varieties and would love to hear the things others are finding out with their grafting experiments. Some but not all of the indeterminate heirloom varieties grafted onto determinate rootstock are growing smaller plants. I used a determinate Floralina in a good number of my first successful grafts. Many of the scions are not getting as large as I would expect but they are setting fruit very well. The most notable is my Brandywine Sudduth's on Floralina. The plant is barely 5 feet tall when it should be at least 7 feet by now but it is setting more fruit than I have gotten in the past from it and it is easier to manage. The other ones that are noticeably smaller are Giant Belgium on Tasti-Lee, and Omar's Lebanese on Tasti-Lee. Several of the scions have grown at least as large as normal on the determinate rootstock and one is even bigger and that is T-6 on Floralina. All have fruit set far beyond normal for me. I'm wondering if the determinate rootstock has any influence on the early heavy fruit set I have seen on almost all of the plants grafted onto determinate rootstock. One thing I have noticed on my grafts that were done on the very vigorous rootstock I call the fluke, is the hearts are so vigorous that from a distance they don't even look much like hearts. They are not nearly so wispy as I usually see and are needing much more pruning to keep them open. Which rootstock are you having the best luck with when it comes to accepting the grafts? And which scions seem to be the least successful when grafting. For me the two rootstocks that have accepted the grafts the best have been my fluke tomato and Floralina closely followed by Amelia. The one I have had the least success with is Multifort. KBX and Golden Ponderosa have been very hard to graft for me and Cherokee Purple and Prudens Purple were the easiest. I know it is early in the season and I'm sure I will find different things about many of my grafts that I am not aware of now so I will try to keep posting my findings. I am still grafting and intend to keep doing it till I run out of plants to graft to. Right now I am starting suckers that I prune off to use for grafting later. I am limited in my rootstock selection to varieties that show a strong resistance to fusarium wilt so many of the possible rootstock are not feasible for me to use; but I would still like to hear what others are finding out as the season progresses. Bill

June 28, 2013	#3
tjg911 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: zone 5b northwest connecticut Posts: 2,570	bill what is fluke rootstock? is fluke a general term meaning any variety or is fluke a variety of tomato? tom __________________ I need a hero I’m holding out for a hero ‘til the end of the night He’s gotta be strong And he’s gotta be fast And he’s gotta be fresh from the fight I need a hero I’m holding out for a hero ‘til the morning light He’s gotta be sure And it’s gotta be soon And he’s gotta be larger than life

June 29, 2013	#4
DavidP Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Riverside, Southern California, USDA 9b, Sunset 19 Posts: 63	The only ones I've tried are Maxifort, Beaufort and He-Man. Of those I'd say He-Man had the most vigorous rootstock but doesn't seem too available in the US, its a Japanese bred variety. This year just using Maxifort and all seems well so far, hope it survives a couple of forecasted days at 109 this weekend. I might try some of these varieties in the link below next year. Apparently they have complete resistance to nematodes whereas Maxifort has moderate resistance. Since thats pretty much the only problem around here might try those instead. Not sure how much of a difference moderate to complete is though. http://www.dpseeds.com/rootstock Last edited by DavidP; June 29, 2013 at 01:33 AM.

June 29, 2013	#7
Deborah Riding The Crazy Train Again Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: San Marcos, California Posts: 2,562	That baby girl is beautiful. Really is. I've been meaning to ask, does a graft affect the tomato's flavor, or just make for a stronger plant?

June 30, 2013	#8
camochef Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Posts: 707	Last year I grew a German Johnson-Benton Strain grafted to Maxifort rootstock. It was the last little plant into my garden...weeks behind all the others. It quickly caught up to and surpassed everything else out there, including the German Johnson-Benton Strain from seed directly across from it. While it wasn't the first to get ripe tomatoes, It did produce much larger and many more than anything else out there. They were the best tomato I ever tasted! Strong statement, I know, and I've grown thousands of different tomatoes over the last 50 years or more. Here's the most interesting part: I started 11 of them from seed I saved from this wonderful plant, (mainly due to colder temps preventing good germination), eventually they all germinated. All 11 were potato leafed! The grafted plant was regular leafed as was the one across the aisle grown from seed. As they should have been. They had the largest potato leaves I think I've ever seen, and I grow many Brandywines and other varieties with large potato leaves. Since the seed I planted came from different tomatoes from that grafted plant, I cannot believe that all eleven were crossed with something else. Also, I'm extremely careful handling my seeds and I can assure you there was no seed mix-up or mishandling. has anyone else seen a change in leaf type from grafted plants? I no longer have any seeds to experiment with although I did send out seeds to friends and will soon be getting results back from them. Enjoy! Camo