2017 Grafting thread: Open to all

[b54red]

Boy did I mess up day before yesterday. It had been two days since I grafted two flats of tomatoes with a total of nearly 50 plants. I went out in the greenhouse and took the lids off to let in some fresh air and got a phone call and walked out and forgot them til nearly noon yesterday. With the humidity around 30% guess what I had when I went in the greenhouse yesterday. Two flats full of totally wilted plants. I immediately misted them and put the lids back on and crossed my fingers. By late afternoon today a few of them are standing up some, so maybe it won't be a total massacre like I thought it would be. If it weren't for me doing stupid things like that I would probably be a pretty good tomato grafter. I certainly will be bringing down my success rate this year with that bonehead move.

Bill

[b54red]

It's been a while since I pulled that dunderhead move and it looks like I will have some survive. From the looks of them out of over 50 grafts I may get a third that will survive but if I wait a while a few more may recover. I pulled the ones that definitely looked like they may survive and placed them in another flat. The rest I gave a dose of fertilizer and will check on them in a few more days and see if any of them show signs of recovery.

Bill

[jtjmartin]

I just grafted my third batch of tomatoes yesterday. I typically graft about 15 at a time and I've had two fail each time. Black Dragon really doesn't seem to like RST-106!

For the first year, I rerooted the RST tops that I used to discard and used some in grafts yesterday. The rerooted RST seemed to be more fibrous than the fresh RST.

I'm also planning on letting some of the RST grow out. Wondering if I can use RST stems (that have never had roots) grafted to heirloom scions and get the RST stems to root.

Jeff

[b54red]

Originally Posted by jtjmartin

I just grafted my third batch of tomatoes yesterday. I typically graft about 15 at a time and I've had two fail each time. Black Dragon really doesn't seem to like RST-106!

For the first year, I rerooted the RST tops that I used to discard and used some in grafts yesterday. The rerooted RST seemed to be more fibrous than the fresh RST.

I'm also planning on letting some of the RST grow out. Wondering if I can use RST stems (that have never had roots) grafted to heirloom scions and get the RST stems to root.

Jeff

I have also found a few varieties that don't do that well on the 106 root stock but overall it is the best that I have found. With other root stock I had far fewer varieties that excelled. I think that despite the fact that the graft took, some varieties just don't work that well with some other varieties and the resulting grafted plant just doesn't thrive and produce well. I can live with that and if I must have a particular variety that doesn't work with the RST 106 I can use Estamino or Multifort for that particular variety. One that readily comes to mind is Delicious which does fantastic on Estamino or even Multifort but is only okay when grafted to 106.

I also root the tops for later use and yes they are more fibrous. They are also far less likely to successfully graft than the new seedlings because of the mismatch between the older stem and newer softer stem of the scion. Despite the lower success rate it is worth it to me to use the rooted stems.

I tried just using the stems and grafting hoping for them to root but my success rate was just too low to justify the time and effort. I had far too many cases of damping off due to the longer time needed before the roots took off. Damping off is a major problem here for me and it only gets worse as the weather changes to the more humid hot typical weather of spring and summer.

Bill

[jtjmartin]

Bill:

Thanks for the continued advice and guidance.

I thought I would have a few years before disease would "build up" in my soil. It was so disheartening to see huge, rugged plants with plenty of fruit set wilt overnight! I still have plenty of potential problems but grafting has reduced the heartbreaking two-day-kill-off.

It's very relaxing to graft since it still takes my total attention but even if they all fail I still have Big Beef. It amazed me how long the 24 took to graft yesterday.

Happy growing year to you!

Jeff

[b54red]

Originally Posted by jtjmartin

Bill:

Thanks for the continued advice and guidance.

I thought I would have a few years before disease would "build up" in my soil. It was so disheartening to see huge, rugged plants with plenty of fruit set wilt overnight! I still have plenty of potential problems but grafting has reduced the heartbreaking two-day-kill-off.

It's very relaxing to graft since it still takes my total attention but even if they all fail I still have Big Beef. It amazed me how long the 24 took to graft yesterday.

Happy growing year to you!

Jeff

Jeff if you had kill offs that fast then you were probably dealing with Bacterial Wilt which can be devastating since I have never seen it kill anything but big healthy heavily loaded tomato plants. I'm sure it has but I haven't seen it yet. Every plant that I have lost to that disease has been large and loaded down with fruit.

As far as I know the RST roots stock is the only one commonly available that is resistant to Bacterial Wilt. I have not had a single plant with the 106 root stock get bacterial wilt and it has been my main root stock for over three years now. I have had every other root stock graft get Bacterial Wilt. I don't know how strong the 106 resistance is but so far it has been terrific at stopping Bacterial Wilt, RKN, and all three races of fusarium wilt and for me more scion varieties have done well with it than any other root stock I have tried. Right now NE Seeds is out of the 106 root stock seed and I hope they will be getting some more soon.

Bill

[jtjmartin]

Bill:

Last year, many of my grafted plants grew over 20 feet with lean and lower. I planted some non-grafted Prudens Purple - they were big, rugged, beautiful plants that outgrew everything else. Good fruit set then - WHAM! The wilting started. Other non-grafted tomatoes were hit too.

I know I have moles & voles in the garden. The dog digs for them and the cats catch them. I've wondered if they damaged the roots and allow BW easy entrance.

I ordered my RST in November or December. I'm have some extra RST seed if you need them. PM me.

Jeff

[b54red]

Originally Posted by jtjmartin

Bill:

Last year, many of my grafted plants grew over 20 feet with lean and lower. I planted some non-grafted Prudens Purple - they were big, rugged, beautiful plants that outgrew everything else. Good fruit set then - WHAM! The wilting started. Other non-grafted tomatoes were hit too.

I know I have moles & voles in the garden. The dog digs for them and the cats catch them. I've wondered if they damaged the roots and allow BW easy entrance.

I ordered my RST in November or December. I'm have some extra RST seed if you need them. PM me.

Jeff

Thanks for the offer Jeff but I am keeping my rooting seedlings going for now and they should get me through the rest of this season.

Jeff you probably don't have the terrible fusarium problems that are present in my garden down here; but you may have some. I don't know if RKN is a problem for you either but it does sound like Bacterial wilt is a problem for you so you may want to keep grafting some or all of your plants with the RST root stock. If I didn't have the other problems I would not graft just for Bacterial wilt as it doesn't show up every year and at its worst it only took out about 10% of my plants one season. I have heard horror tales of some gardens with terrible Bacterial wilt problems but luckily I never had anything but minor occurrences of it here.

Pruden's Purple is one that gets multiple spots in my garden every season because of its productivity and ability to set fruit in high heat. Pruden's Purple used to produce larger fruit before I started grafting it so maybe it is one that doesn't do as well after grafting. It does produce lots and lots of fruit but the vines are smaller and the fruit averages smaller on the grafted plants. However large the fruit on the non-grafted plants fusarium or RKN would take them out before they could make more than a few so the decision to graft was a no brainer so it only took me a few years to start grafting.

Bill