2017 Grafting thread: Open to all

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by BigVanVader

I can mail you some if you haven't ordered any.

Thank much, BVV.
I have to get some. Also need the ones for stringing too.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

Thank much, BVV.
I have to get some. Also need the ones for stringing too.

That link also has the tomato clips for stringing at a good price especially if you need a lot of them.

Bill

[b54red]

I did another batch tonight but my arthritis was acting up and it took far too long. My initial few that I did in order to take some pics are now in the open and had their first drink since going into the healing chambers 7 days ago. I will take them out of the healing chamber and move them to another shallower tray and in a week or so I will re-pot them with potting mix.

Bill

[BigVanVader]

I did 3 grafts last night. I would have done more but the rootstock were to skinny and the clips were to loose. My rootstock just stopped growing it seems. They were outgrowing my scions at first but now it is the opposite, so many scions are thicker stemmed than my rootstock. Two of my grafts were a little loose and one looked perfect and ewas really tight so if any survive it should be that one. I did 2 ISPL to RST and 1 Spadakee to RST.

[txtstorm]

Is it ok if the cotyledons of the scion are droopy? I removed most of the leaves and the scions look "okay" (not optimal turgidity, but not completely slumped over). The cotyledons look sad though. I'm on day 3 since the round grafting on Saturday. I've got them under low light (~3500 lux).

The Clonex grafts seemed to pull apart. One of them looks ok, but the other two were definitely separated got chucked. Live and learn.

Just did another round of grafting, this time with the Supernatural rootstock. Fingers crossed at least one of them takes. Also, hoping to root the Supernatural tops for more experiments later.

[JerryL]

Hi all,
I hope to try a few grafted plants this year. Only a dozen or so just to see what happens. I hope to try some top grafting, some side grafting and a few cleft grafting.
I’ve read this and other threads here on T’Ville. I’ve also watched a lot of videos. Everyone seems to have a different opinion on when to start the rootstock and scions. Below is my game plan. I’ll be using Estamino and RST-04-106-T rootstock. Let me know what you think.
I normally start my seeds 8 weeks prior to plant out.
Feb 16th – Start some scion
Feb 20th – Start some scion
Feb 23rd – Start rootstock and some scion
Feb 27th – Start a few more rootstock
Week of March 6th – graft
March 13th – normal seed starting date
May 8th – plant out date

[BigVanVader]

Originally Posted by txtstorm

Is it ok if the cotyledons of the scion are droopy? I removed most of the leaves and the scions look "okay" (not optimal turgidity, but not completely slumped over). The cotyledons look sad though. I'm on day 3 since the round grafting on Saturday. I've got them under low light (~3500 lux).

The Clonex grafts seemed to pull apart. One of them looks ok, but the other two were definitely separated got chucked. Live and learn.

Just did another round of grafting, this time with the Supernatural rootstock. Fingers crossed at least one of them takes. Also, hoping to root the Supernatural tops for more experiments later.

I think its normal practice to cut off the cotyledons off when you graft. All the vids i have seen do, and I did as well. So far my grafts look fine, I'm very very surprised by this because 2 of them just felt like they were loosely sitting in the clips. Time will tell.

[BigVanVader]

Originally Posted by JerryL

Hi all,
I hope to try a few grafted plants this year. Only a dozen or so just to see what happens. I hope to try some top grafting, some side grafting and a few cleft grafting.
I’ve read this and other threads here on T’Ville. I’ve also watched a lot of videos. Everyone seems to have a different opinion on when to start the rootstock and scions. Below is my game plan. I’ll be using Estamino and RST-04-106-T rootstock. Let me know what you think.
I normally start my seeds 8 weeks prior to plant out.
Feb 16th – Start some scion
Feb 20th – Start some scion
Feb 23rd – Start rootstock and some scion
Feb 27th – Start a few more rootstock
Week of March 6th – graft
March 13th – normal seed starting date
May 8th – plant out date

Looks like a good plan to me, Good luck!

[heirloomtomaguy]

I also am doing some grafting this year. I am using Maxifort and Estamino as rootstock. As for the scion i am using

Big Zac
Brutus
Brandywine Sudduths
Delicious
German Giant
Giant Belgium
Giant Roo
Owens Purple
Red Barn
Terhune

You could say i am going to try my hand at growing a monster. As for method i am going to try the one used in this video
https://youtu.be/zhgsPkeZEbk

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by heirloomtomaguy

I also am doing some grafting this year. I am using Maxifort and Estamino as rootstock. As for the scion i am using

Big Zac
Brutus
Brandywine Sudduths
Delicious
German Giant
Giant Belgium
Giant Roo
Owens Purple
Red Barn
Terhune

You could say i am going to try my hand at growing a monster. As for method i am going to try the one used in this video
https://youtu.be/zhgsPkeZEbk

Is it possible to graft one scion onto two root stocks, in a Greek Lambda shape (inverted Y )? MONSTER ?

[txtstorm]

Thanks, BVV. I guess I hadn't paid attention to that detail. Glad to hear yours are looking good. Most of mine are looking good this morning too. I'm going to feel like such a jedi if this actually works.

[heirloomtomaguy]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

Is it possible to graft one scion onto two root stocks, in a Greek Lambda shape (inverted Y )? MONSTER ?

Thats actually going to be my focus. I have a couple of ideas as to how to do so. I planted alot of rootsock seeds and plenty of scion's seed so it shall be interesting.

[b54red]

We had a nice rain last night so with the humidity nearly 100% I went ahead and opened up the healing chamber last night that has the grafts done on 2/4 and left it open until a few minutes ago. I also opened the grafts I did on 2/6 and left it open for about an hour this morning then misted the plants and lid and closed it back up.

Below are pictures of the grafts done so far this season.

1st and 2nd picture are of the first dozen that I did on 1/31. They were taken out of the open healing chamber yesterday and are on my porch right now. It looks right now that I may have 100% success with this small batch but I will know more after we get some of those hot bright days predicted later this week.

3rd is the open healing chamber of the ones done on 2/4. It has only been 4 days and this chamber was left open all night and when I put it back in the greenhouse this morning I left it cracked well and it will stay that way unless I see too much wilting today.

4th is the healing chamber with my newest batch that was done on 2/6. I let them have a little open time this morning then sealed them back up.

It is predicted to be nearly 80 today then down near freezing Thursday night then promptly get hot again. This crazy weather is one of the reasons it is great to have a air conditioner and heater in my greenhouse. The only problem with both of those is they can reduce the humidity quite a bit which can make grafting a bit more difficult. I like cloudy days in the mid 60s with high humidity for grafting just like I want one good inch of rain every week for my garden.

I am going to do another batch today if I can before my root stock get too big to use. Some of my varieties of scions have not even been used once for grafting because they have not gotten big enough yet. This seems to happen every year and it means that some varieties I would like to have grafted for my earliest planting get left out. If I was a bit smarter I would plant root stock every 3 days so I would have more variety in the sizes to match up with my various scions. I have noticed that unlike the root stocks the scions grow at widely different rates making matching up stem sizes for grafting more difficult.

Bill

[b54red]

Originally Posted by BigVanVader

I did 3 grafts last night. I would have done more but the rootstock were to skinny and the clips were to loose. My rootstock just stopped growing it seems. They were outgrowing my scions at first but now it is the opposite, so many scions are thicker stemmed than my rootstock. Two of my grafts were a little loose and one looked perfect and ewas really tight so if any survive it should be that one. I did 2 ISPL to RST and 1 Spadakee to RST.

I have the opposite problem right now with my root stock for the most part being substantially larger than my scions even though planted a week later. I much prefer it the other way because you only need the very tip of the scion to do a graft.

I can't stress enough how much easier it is to have a good selection of sizes in the silicon grafting clips before starting to graft. I haven't used any of the 3mm sizes yet but on the 6th I had to use some of the 2.5mm clips and almost no 1.5mm clips which was all I used on the first batch just a week ago. The cost of the grafting clips is negligible compared to the root stock seed so the added expense is made up for in a higher success rate.

Usually the graft will take even if the clips are not tight on the stems if the stems are very upright and vertical so there is little if any leaning. I much prefer them to be tight because many of my stems are crooked and it is very hard to set them in the DE in a perfectly vertical position.

Bill

[BigVanVader]

The pro! Looking good man! So how soon do they typically fail if they are going to? I'm just curious b/c so far all 3 of mine seem fine. I havent opened the healing chamber yet, how soon should I? Oh and Bill I did buy 1.5 and 2.0 mm clips but I think i'm going to order some 2.5 and 3.0