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| First off, I'm skeptical about this latest grafting "buzz." For the home gardener, I suspect it's a waste of money. But that said, It seems to me that the best case is promoting grafted plants to increase the yield (and perhaps disease resistance) of heirlooms. (?) But grafting stock seed is very expensive, and grafted plants are really expensive. So here is the question -- has anyone tried grafting to a vigorous (regular) hybrid? It might produce decent results from a much lower cost. Or, there might be a few OP varieties that could be used as grafting stock effectively? -wc2k8 |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by carolyn137 z4/5 NY (My Page) on Sun, Feb 10, 13 at 8:41
| I too am wondering why all the interest in grafting. I don't think most folks realize that it's only some of the soilborne diseases which a specific rootstock might have some tolerance , not resistance, to when indeed the most common tomato diseases are the fungal and bacterial foliage diseases. That being said, Dr. Davis Francis of Ohio State U has had excellent results using Celebrity F1 as rootstock. If you wish you can Google his name and see what data you can find, What bothers me the most are cerain places, Territorial is one, where the company that supplies them with plants has gone WAY over the top in describing the advantages. Grafted plants are common in Australia and many there refuse to buy them b'c of the high cost. There are some advantages re yield if grafted plants, with certain rootstocks, are grown in large commercial greenhouses, so I've read, Carolyn, who feels that if yield is the issue then interested persons should consider known varieties that have high yields, and that doesn't necessarily mean F1 hybrids. |
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| I graft to Celebrity. I graft because my soil has root knot nematodes. |
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- Posted by woodcutter2008 (My Page) on Mon, Feb 11, 13 at 8:22
| Thanks, Carolyn. I was able to find quite a bit of info, including several mentions of using celebrity as the rootstock. -wc2k8 |
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| I tried grafting to Big Beef once. Seems to have worked. |
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- Posted by bmoser z6PA (b2m2@moserproduce.com) on Tue, Feb 12, 13 at 14:10
| I agree with Carolyn that advantages in the NE are not that pronounced to justify the "Hassle" associated with grafting. When Dr. Randy Gardner's grad student (N.C.) first presented his findings I thought this would be great but once I tried it for a few years I became turned off by what I'll call "Side effects". Such issues as being extra careful to plant shallow so as not to allow the top variety to take root and then to continually sucker any stems originating from the rootstock just make the marginal-at-best yield increase not worth it. I have tried grafting onto SunSugar rootstock solely because I thought that variety was very vigorous and the medicinal plant odor seemed to reinforce the idea of more disease resistance (No listed resistance). I've mostly used the Maxifort rootstock. One might always keep switching rootstock varieties depending on the attributes of that rootstock but even that methodology has it's costs. When it comes to fruit or nut trees I wouldn't think of planting a non-grafted plant and if I were in an area where root borne diseases were common I would reconsider grafting of tomatoes. Every task has a break-even level. I just think the expenditures outweigh the payback for this one. |
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| I have no idea about the purported claims and or the benefits of grafting tomatoes. That said, I read a book recently about grafting of european grape varietals onto american rootstock a few hundred years ago. My understanding is that worldwide stocks of certain varietals were truly under threat of collapse until the figured out to do this. But again, that is grapes - no idea about tomatoes. |
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