Cheaper grafting rootstocks

[Jarrod King]

I have used Maxifort before for my small garden and liked the result. However it will be quite expensive to buy the seeds for the much larger small tomato farm I have planned. Estamino seems just as expensive. Can you graft onto something like Better Boy Hybrid and get close to the same result? How close will it be? I'm mainly looking for increased yields and vigor in my heirloom tomatoes and greater fruit set when conditions are bad.

[b54red]

I have tried using cheaper rootstock seed for grafting but didn't really get much in the way of improved production from them. Big Beef was probably the most versatile of the ones I tried with better luck with more varaieties grafted to it.

I used a rootstock last year that showed more promise with increasing yield without the any huge increase in vegetation. Here is a link to the site from which the seed may be obtained. If you buy in quantity they are a bit more reasonable.
http://www.neseed.com/Tomato-Rootsto...-T-p/34002.htm

The one above and Estamino have shown the best results for me over the past couple of years.

Bill

[ChrisK]

Charger F1 has a good disease resistance package and worked fine for me but it's not a strict rootstock variety. I'm not looking for rootstock to increase production, just keep the plants from being decimated by fusarium. 250 seeds for ~$22. Cheap in my opinion given everything else put into the hobby.

[Gardeneer]

Bill (B54red) has a lot of experience in grafting.

I think if you just want to do it for disease prevention, probably Big Beef is the most economical in small scale grafting.

[imp]

Boy, feel like I am touting E & R lately! They have rootstock seeds.

[MendozaMark]

I have never grafted a tomato, but I am interested in trying in the future. The only rootstock that was at a normal price was Colossus, when I did a quick search. Not sure if it has fusarium resistance though.

Annapolis Seeds in Nova Scotia, Canada is selling it as a beefsteak variety but a quick google search will show that it is used as rootstock as well.

http://www.annapolisseeds.com/product-p/033.htm

[Jarrod King]

I was reading another thread and it reminded me you can vegetatively propagate the rootstock, so maybe I will try that. It is early enough and Maxifort is robust enough I think I could make tons of cuttings and have them rooted in time from just a few seeds starting out. I remember the first time I did the grafting with Maxifort, the discard pile with Maxifort tops and just a pile of dried bare rootballs with no care or water or light kept trying to grow, like some sort of unkillable mutant!

[carolyn137]

I have posted here many times about the work of Dr. David Francis at Ohio State who has more experience with grafting than anyone I know/

With about 2,000 in my faves I didn't want to golooking for for links so I googled him for you.

He highly suggests using Celebrity F1 as a rootstock and for soilborne diseases and I emphasize that b'c we just had a thread here on grafting for increased yield where opinions varied quite a bit and grafting is NOT the way to go when talking about Foliage diseases.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Dr+D..._AUIBigA&dpr=1

Carolyn

[ChrisK]

Unless you have Fusarium Race 3.

Originally Posted by carolyn137

He highly suggests using Celebrity F1 as a rootstock and for soilborne diseases

Carolyn

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by ChrisK

Unless you have Fusarium Race 3.

You are correct Chis but race 3 is more commonly found from perhaps VA down the East Coast, past you in NC down to FL and then along the Gulf coast states to S Cal and then in CA also.

We who grow in the northern climes seldom if ever see race 3.

Carolyn