excellent video. here's more info.

Here is a link that might be useful: healing chamber construction

Nice link. Here's a link from your link. Interesting information within the "Healing the Grafted Plants" section.

smithmal

Here is a link that might be useful: Vegetable Grafting Eggplants and Tomatoes

i tried this last year with little success. no time to try again this year. last year i started the rootstock and scion seed at the same time and ended up with difficult to match stem sizes. no healing chamber could make that right.

Jarrod,

Thanks for the information. I am trying grafting (first year) using a 31 gallon tote and an Air-O-Swiss cool mister inside to maintain high humidity. I do the grafts this Sunday evening so hopefully, I will have some healed plants out of the process in 2 weeks. Getting the Maxifort and scions to "align" grafting diameter is the challenge!

Raybo

Jarrod,

I've seen individuals mention using aquariums before, but not quite in the way you describe. Any thoughts of a good, inexpensive aquarium heater? Could you give us an idea what your temp was and how you gradually increased you light? I was thinking of building a healing chamber from scratch, but I have an extra aquarium that could be used. It's a little small though, probably 24" x 18" x 12". What size aquarium would you suggest? Also, when growing your tomatoes with the maxifort rootstock, how many days did you delay your maxifort vs. your scions? My understanding is that maxifort grows very quickly and you need to delay germinating it 3 - 5 days after you've started your scion seeds.

smithmal

Rnewste, keep us updated on how it is going! I wouldn't worry too much about having them being the exact size, I had some that were ridiculously mismatched after I had used all the ones close in size and they turned out okay. I think it just all depends on how good the rest of your process and chamber is.

Smithmal, I kept the aquarium heater around 84 deg. as that is the optimal tomatoes grafting temp from my literature. As to an aquarium heater, I highly recommend the Aquatop 150 watt from Amazon. It is very cheap at 15.99 and the best heater I have ever owned. But any should do pretty well.

I gradually increased the light by doing just a few hours of the fluorescent after many days in the dark. You slowly build up and the wilting will always let you know when you've gone too far. When they are really robust I put them by a window as well for sunlight in addition to the fluorescent, but be very careful. You do the same with the humidity. Cover any large holes in the lid, I had a space at the back for the power filter and even uncovering that at first resulted in drooping.

Any aquarium would be fine it just depends how many plants you want. A big jiffy tray fits in a 20 gallon long aquarium. These are often very cheap at Petsmart.

I didn't delay the seed starting for the two different seeds but it would probably be best. Maybe even seven days different. I can't stress enough how vigorously the Maxifort grows. When I was doing the grafting, I threw all the tops and old jiffy pellets in a big pile and was amazed to see the Maxifort tops root somehow and start growing beautiful plants in the pile with no light or care whatsoever!

When you do this make sure and plant out some non-grafted versions of your tomatoes as well so you can compare the two. I'm a scientist in real life and don't like poorly controlled experiments, so do both kinds so you can see if it is worth it. I really enjoy the grafting and it isn't a hassle, it is more like a delight to feel so powerful that you can join two different plants together with nothing more than a sharp razor blade and a clip. My in depth comparison between grafted and non-grafted was messed up by a late frost last year that decimated my tomatoes, leaving few that I could directly compare, but I have had two different people say that the grafted plants i gave them kept producing far into the fall when the others they had had ceased and that is one often mentioned advantage for grafting I have seen. Have fun!

I am using 2 HydroFarms heat mats under the Burpee XL tray, sitting on top of a 1/2 inch foam insulating layer. At the moment, the internal temp of the Healing Chamber is running at 81 degrees. The Air-O-Swiss on a timer, maintains the RH between 85% to 95%. The grafted plants will go in on Sunday evening, so I wanted to get the system stabilized a few days ahead.

Raybo

Did the "surgery" today:

So, we will see if the Healing Chamber works:

The 3 days wait until I can take a peek is killing me!

Raybo

My healing chambers are very low tech. I spray the inside of a quart ziploc bag with water, invert, and place one over each grafted plant. I make sure the bag doesn't touch the leaves (requires some trimming). When there is no moisture on the inside of the bag I take it off and respray. After a few days I cut a hole in the bag to reduce the humidity. Plants are at room temperature. When ready for more light I put them near a window. Works for me.

This post was edited by socalgal on Wed, Feb 19, 14 at 21:47

I would like to suggest an easier humidifying technique. Earlier this year, for a separate reason, I bought a 4 shelf plant stand at Lowe's for $30. I needed some space for new-planted flats to sit upstairs in warmth for germination.

But when I went to graft tomatoes, I realized I had the perfect space for them. The plant stand is called Weatherguard Early Start Greenhouse. I'm not pushing it, just what *I* found that seems suitable for recovery. The inside of the plastic cover is dripping water after only 2 hours, so it has to be near 100% humidity.

But I have a blog post about it HERE with more details about what I am trying.

Here is a link that might be useful: Grafting Tomatoes

I use a lot of Mountain Magic as rootstock and it works quite well. I also found that smaller seedlings work better for me. I did some eggplant for rootstock last year but the stems didn't grow as thick as the scions but they produced ok. I had one plant that had both eggplant and tomatoes.

I was wondering if you could take a scion from one of the branches of the plant higher up? You could have more than one scion from one plant. It's easier to match up stem size if you can move up the stem. I was just wondering how far up you can go.

I lose a lot, but I just start more. The biggest problem is time. Mine take a long time to start growing. They just sit there being lazy.

Last year I had 6 each scions of Maxifort, Mountain Magic, and eggplant. The Maxifort and Mountain Magic did the same, eggplant took a while to catch up. The Mountain Magic were the last ones standing.

Eggplant and tomatoes from one plant? Forget "Ketchup and Fries." You have invented "Eggplant Parmesean!!"

My brother didn't believe me when I told him. I must have cut the eggplant above the first leaves. I let it grow just out of curiosity and it was loaded with eggplants but they were skinny and yellow. The tomatoes didn't get very big.