2017 Grafting thread: Open to all

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

Usually I envy those of you down south with longer and multiple growing seasons. And then I read about all the challenges brought on by heat and humidity...

Today was pot-up day for the tomatoes. All 37 grafted plants plus my handful of ungrafted plants are now tucked into larger pots filled with Wondersoil, propped up with skewers, and back under the lights in the basement.

So far I'm not seeing much difference between the two rootstocks -- large root systems and healthy top growth with both. The grafts look really good and solid, and a few will probably pop their clips within the next week.

I am seeing a big difference between the grafted and ungrafted plants, however. The ungrafted were all rootbound, a few have buds, and they are about 5-6 inches taller than the grafted plants. All were started at the same time. This really shows the "set back" caused by the low-root grafting technique.

I'm liking the courser DE (Optisorb) so much more than fine stuff (Ultrasorb). Bill, I can see now how you can just dump it and re-use it, over and over.

The only issue I had today was resisting my natural instinct to plant them deep when up-potting. It was kind of a relief to get to the ungrafted plants and not have to worry about keeping a graft above the soil line.

An easy fix that I have been using since just after I set out my first grafts and trying so hard not to bury the graft juncture is to graft higher up on the rootstock. It makes it so much easier and carefree when planting and also allows mulch to be pulled up against the stem without worrying about the scion rooting.

Grafting definitely slows down the time from planting seed to setting out hardened plants. I have rushed it in the past with some regrets and now just wait patiently or impatiently til they are ready. I figure it usually adds from a couple of weeks at the least to a month so I have to start seed so much earlier in order to make my plant out dates and I'm still usually a bit late. Being a bit late is not usually a problem down here with our very long season and having plants that don't get sick or start getting sick from all our soil born problems is well worth the wait.

Bill