Willus' Indoor Fall-Winter-Spring Grow Log (Season 2012-13)

[z_willus_d]

After great difficulty and little success through last year's indoor New Dwarf winter grow season, I'm back at it again this year. I was plagued by various systemic and foliage diseases and the end result was very little and very mealy fruit. This year I'm going at it with some new weapons in my arsenal. First, I'm working with Marla (Mlm1 TV member) to try and graft my new dwarf seedlings onto hardy, disease resistant root-stock (Maxifort and Beaufort). Who know if this process will be successful itself and what effect the Root-stock might have on the dwarfishness of the scion material. This is really a trial for next Summer season where I intend to graft my tomato plants entire. I'll also be using dwarf varieties (Perth's Pride, Yukon Quest, and Iditarod) that I grew out this summer and to quite a bit more success than the varieties I attempted last winter season (Rosella's Purple, Summertime Green/Gold, Beryl Beauty, Wild Fred, etc.)

I've posted a few pics here of my RS and dwarf scion (three to the larger 6" pots). This is just an initial post, and I intend to post more as the grafting experiments proceed.
-naysen

Links to last year's Indoor grow posts:
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=21328
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=21361
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=20548

[ContainerTed]

Amazing, I've never seen "magenta" colored foliage before. How did you get this unique color??? Is it the lights in the first link????

I'm gonna watch for updates to see how this experiment works out.

[z_willus_d]

Yep. These are high-end (at least according to my wallet book) LED tech grow lights. I've not been incredibly impressed with the seedling performing (seem to bleach the leaves to death), but the penetration is good so they seem to work well for indoor, mature plant growth. I also like the lower pwr consumption and heat generation aspects of the LED lights.
-naysen

[kurt]

Looking at your links and reading have you researched any carbon dioxide/oxygen exchange info in such a crowded growing space.I know for a fact that greenhouse operators factor it in the daylight/night exposure times.Also I was always told in pruning to nip the branches back to main stock to discourage fungal growth on the dead branching cuts.

[z_willus_d]

Kurt, we park a car in this garage, and I must admit I had considered the potentially beneficial effects of letting it idle a few minutes every day for a hit of C02, granted that might not be so healthy for us humans cohabiting with the plants. I'd read that dwarfs prefer to be left alone in the sucker department, so that's what I did last year. We know how well that worked out, so this year I will be performing some modicum of pruning to try and contain the vines within their respective grow volume space. I always say that's what I'm going to do, but then in practice it's much harder to implement the culling.

Nice to hear from you.
-naysen

[kurt]

Please do not confuse car exhaust(carbon monoxide)with carbon dioxide."Back in the day" before all this new info/methods and timers we used to use blocks of dry ice at intervals.Hey at least I am on the right page this time.Good Luck.

[z_willus_d]

Kurt, good point. I think I must have been inhaling too much car exhaust, although I do believe some small portion of C02 will be produced in exhaust as well.
-n

[z_willus_d]

Today Marla (Mlm1) visited, and besides several bags of absolutely amazing tasting tomatoes from her garden she brought all the implements necessary to achieve end-to-end Root-stock-to-dwarf-scion-grafting. This included:

1. A very sharp straight edge razor (w/ plastic grip)
2. Clips for holding the graft joints (two sizes)
3. Plant Labels
4. A pen the ink of which is said to be unique in it's ability to withstand the elements through a season full
5. Pots, lots of perfectly sized pots
6. A clear plastic Tote used for storing the grafted seedlings: the hospital.

So the process is fairly straightforward once you get the hang of things. If I were to summarize the steps, the tyro that I am, they'd read something like this:

1. Setup a sprayer (we filled it with a dilute amount of seaweed extract).
2. Label all seedlings, root-stock and scion.
3. Arrange the RS and Scion pots, large stem to small.
4. Select a pair, well matched in girth.
5. Use a straightedge to slice off the top of the RS, cotyledon and all, making a clean 45-degree cut.
6. Perform the same cut on the scion making sure to match up the cut locations to maximize parity of stem diameter. Also be sure to leave ~1/2" on each cut stem to fit in the clip.
7. Clip the scion piece to the RS (still in its pot) making the best possible mate of the two cross-sections. There are different size clips depending on the size of the graft-joint.
8. Place the the grafted seedling in the hospital bin (clear plastic tote with headroom)
9. Spray down the bin (sidewalls, plants, and all); cover with lid.
10. Rinse and repeat steps 4-10.
11. Maintain a nice moist environ for the grafted convalescents. Spray them the tote say once or so a day. Keep them at room temp (~85F). Cover the tote with a towel to keep from direct sunlight for the first three days or so.
12. After three or so days, pop the lid and give the plants and hour or two. Any that appear to not have taken umbrage to the change, can move on two a second tote that might get more indirect light. The others stay in darkness and high humidity. This process repeats daily until all grafted seedlings, those which survive at least, make it two a third bin that holds the fully recovered, grafted uber-dwarf (or whatever). Move 'em on to their final destinations.

Well that's my recollection of the process. I trust others will correct any omissions or incorrect statements I might have made. The pictures I've posted come courtesy of Marla and her advanced photograph taking system. So these pics will represent an discontinuity in the quality and content of photographs you'll find posted here, future and past.


A big public thanks to Marla for shepherding me through this grafting process. We'll see how they do over the next week or so.
-naysen

[Mlm1]

Naysen
You forgot the most important last step.

13. Send your company home loaded down with garden grown peppers, wine and beautiful jars of homemade salsa, sauce, bisque, tomato paste and tomato broth.

That was a fun afternoon. You have an amazing setup with your raised tomato bed, tainers and pots.

I'm looking forward to following your project this winter. Seems like you have it off to a great start.

Marla

[Heritage]

Naysen

It will be interesting to see how the dwarfs perform as scions. Good luck with your project!

Steve

[z_willus_d]

Steve, thanks for the well wishes.

On a separate topic, you might recall the back and forth you and I had a while back over the issues I was seeing growing seedlings under artificial light (LED in my case). We were starting to put together a list of experiments to try and narrow down what the cause could be. Well, this round I was seeing a lot of the same problems on the root-stock seedlings. Marla took a look and thought it most likely could be due to a lack of nutrients/feeding. I plant in sterile seed starting mix (FoxFarms Light Warrior), and hadn't fed the plants anything. I'm going to start with a dilute application of seaweed extract (maybe add some fish as well if I can manage the odors). Hopefully this helps with the problems I was and am seeing. I was concerned about adding more "stuff" to the mix last time having had all the feedback about keeping things simple early on with the seedlings. I swung the pendulum full the other way, giving them nothing.

Alright, we'll see how things progress.
-naysen

[z_willus_d]

Life and Times in the Hospital -- Day 1

[Heritage]

Originally Posted by z_willus_d

Steve, thanks for the well wishes.

On a separate topic, you might recall the back and forth you and I had a while back over the issues I was seeing growing seedlings under artificial light (LED in my case). We were starting to put together a list of experiments to try and narrow down what the cause could be.

-naysen

Naysen, yes, this would be a good time to run some controls - if you have the room/time to run a parallel growout of "Dwarf Sweet Sue" (along with those I am growing in my greenhouse) I will have several extra seedlings looking for a home soon. (they are just now getting their first true leaves) I will have plenty for you to grow under lights and try several different feeding/watering regiments and I will grow the same age plants in my greenhouse using natural light (and artificial nutrients). This might help narrow down some of the many variables you are dealing with... If it sounds like a useful addition to your winter project let me know and I'll get some "Dwarf Sweet Sue" plants to you as soon as they are large enough to ship.

Steve

[z_willus_d]

Hi Steve, you do remember the experiments. So, I'm fairly tight for light space right now, and time has been tight as well. I want to devote as much of my focus on seeing the grafting experiments through to conclusion, I think, before moving on to other tests. Of course, in parallel I will start feeding the plants with a light regimen of fish/kelp/seaweed. Maybe towards the start of next season (Spring /'13), I could try this second set of experiments.

I appreciate your willingness to help me target the problems I've had in my indoor seedling starting configuration.

--naysen

[Heritage]

Naysen, sounds good, let me know if/when you get the time and space to add projects...

the hospital is looking promising, I think Marla said the first 2 or 3 days were the critical time.

Steve