Grafting Heirloom Tomatoes

[Coir]

So this was my first year attempting to graft heirloom tomatoes on to more vigorous root stock. Overall, I ended up with about 60% success which is not as good as I'd hoped but better than most people get when you take into account the scale that I do this at versus the home gardener. Some of the varieties did really well at around 90% survival while a couple of the varieties only had about 20% live. It seems that some scions are not as compatible with certain rootstocks as others are. All in all, it was quite the learning experience and if they grow as planned, I will do this again next year but make some changes that should greatly improve the outcome.
They are still under lights in the growing tent I built this year to get the started and larger before moving them into the greenhouse. The ungrafted plants were moved into the greenhouse yesterday as they are quite a bit larger. The grafting process slows everything down by a couple of weeks. Another lesson learned....

The larger, ungrafted plants have flowers that should be open in the next week or two depending on the weather since they are no longer under lights. Either way, should have the first ripe tomatoes around the end of March.

 

[PButter]

Shut the.... Badass! What are you using as the heartier root stock?
You are making headway towards my hero list.. I did some grafts with fruit tress.. Boy that takes some time to appreciate- my friends back on the farm tell me they're doing great- I never got to see it mature and produce.

Any other thoughts about how to get the success rates higher?

 

[Coir]

I was using Estamino and Colossus rootstock. They both add vigor, increased production over the long crop and added disease resistance. Maxifort is the most popular rootstock but I stay away from anything that Monsanto has their fingers in so I had to find these others. I haven't really had disease problems be an issue even with the heirloom varieties but they sure don't produce near the same amount of tomatoes as the hybrids. I am hoping for the same production as the less tasty hybrids and the flavor of the heirlooms. Actually, if I can just get the heirlooms up to 75% or more of the others I will be very happy.
I was following instructions from several different places on grafting and like most things, no one does it the same way so I had to improvise some. In my opinion, they were too wet(100% condensing humidity) for too long after the first day which is what most called for. I will shorten that time along with the time in the dark next year and get them transpiring earlier. Like with any new thing, you have to start somewhere and this went as well as could be expected for someone with no experience. I learned a lot and will probably learn a lot more next time too!

 

[Seamaiden]

Do you have pix of the process? I can't say I'll be grafting tomatoes, but I still find it interesting. :)

 

[Coir]

I did not take any while I was doing it simply because of the sheer volume I needed to get done over a short period of time and the need to try and keep everything fairly sterile.
The biggest issue is matching up stem diameter of each scion to each rootstock. They need to be really close if not identical in size. I seeded 98 cube sheets of rockwool on the same day for each type of scion and rootstock. The rootstock actually germinated first but then grew a bit slower than the scion stock so next year I will change the seeding times accordingly.
Once they were all large enough to graft, I took a single edge razor blade and quickly cut the tops off the rootstock plants just below the cotyledons and slid the grafting clips halfway over them. I then took a full tray of scion stock and cut them off at a point that would match the rootstock diameter of each individual plant. I then gently slid the scion into the clip until the section were tightly seated against each other. There are several ways to match them up and I had the best success with straight cuts. The first ones I did were at a 45 degree angle which was suggested but I didn't get as good of results with that method. Another option which I did not try this time is to shave the scion into a wedge and make a split down the middle of the rootstock stem and insert the wedge in that split. I think I will definitely try this next year as it looks to me to be a better method although much more time consuming.
Once the whole try is done, I misted the plastic dome and placed it over the tray and then moved the tray under the tables and covered it with opaque sheeting to provide complete darkness for the first three days. Next year, I will only leave them in the dark for one day before exposing them to filtered light. I will also not put as many into each tray as they were way too crowded.
Hopefully they will produce enough to justify the entire process and added cost.

 

[Seamaiden]

When matching to diamater are you also concerned with leaf nodes in any special way? It does sound very labor intensive.

 

[Coir]

Leaf nodes really don't come into play here as long as you leave enough room at the bottom of the scion to slide into the grafting clip. By cutting just above a leaf on the scion, you get plenty of room. The rootstock is cut below the cotyledon so there are no nodes. Removing most of the leaves from the scion helps reduce water stress while the graft is forming.
I'm sure I will be much more efficient at the whole process next year and actually have a "plan" in place rather than just winging it like I did this time.

 

[DismalDude]

This is really interesting.I can't wait to hear more.Great job,awesome work.

 

[Tank333]

That's just awesome, man! I love that you're getting your tomatoes planted so early! I planted half a flat last month and another half-flat this month (one type was heirloom grape tomatoes, the other organic Glacier). I hope to have tomatoes coming out of my damn ears by the end of April...

 

[Coir]

Seeing some green tomatoes now but still a long way to go until they are ripe. I have had the worst month in the history of my farming career but am slowly overcoming all the disasters.
Almost lost the entire crop 3 times during the last bad storms. Propane is at a record high price. My furnace developed a small leak in the heat exchanger causing ethylene damage to all the plants. I picked up the new furnace yesterday and plan on installing it on Saturday. They should recover but it's another setback. My underground feeder cable out to the well and greenhouse shorted out during the worst of the snow which left me powerless and waterless. It was not fun trying the get everything taken care of in that wind and snow! I am about to take on the job of running all new electrical out there as soon as the furnace is done. On top of all that, I found broad mites last week as well. I sure hope the worst of 2014 is past at this point!

 

[Tank333]

Oh man!! Sounds like a whole bucketful of problems for you and your garden! I hope you get them all figured out and squared away before you start getting REALLY busy with tending to the plants themselves.

 

[Seamaiden]

Wow, setbacks like that can really take the wind out of your sails. I do hope you get it all sorted ASAP, truly.

 

[Coir]

It was pretty crazy. My wife had to help me run a 250' "extension cord" out to the greenhouse and she was standing there in the snow and wind looking at me like I was crazy. Wind chill was something like -5.
I love it when people look at what I do and say "wow, that must be so fun! I am going to start doing this". Being a farmer is not as "fun" as people think!

The plants are already in full maintenance mode. Some of the cherry tomatoes are as tall as me now. The real fun comes once everything needs to be picked 2-3 times a week on top of all the plant maintenance.

 

[Tank333]

Ugh... So how much to you farm? Enough to provide for your family, or do you produce to sell?

I've got about 2000 sq ft of garden space for this next year. I'll be doing make-shift raised beds, so I'll really have like half of that much space for actual plants. Fortunately there's fencing I can use to start trellising for the beans and peas...

I'm not going to spend any actual $$ on the building of the beds. Made from recycled lumber, branches and sticks, and I'll be filling them with alpaca poo (Just have to pick it up, they'll load it up for me!) this weekend.

 

[Coir]

I have about 3500 sq' of greenhouse space. 1000 tomato plants, English cukes, peppers, lettuce, basil and a few melons. I sell to stores, restaurants, and at a farmers market. When the tomatoes are in full production it ranges from 800-1500lbs a week so more than even I can eat!

 

[Tank333]

Wow man! Nice! I would LOVE to have that much GH space! I'm wanting to make my own soon, but supplies for it aren't cheap and I'm broke! Lol

 

[Seamaiden]

It was pretty crazy. My wife had to help me run a 250' "extension cord" out to the greenhouse and she was standing there in the snow and wind looking at me like I was crazy. Wind chill was something like -5.
I love it when people look at what I do and say "wow, that must be so fun! I am going to start doing this". Being a farmer is not as "fun" as people think!

The plants are already in full maintenance mode. Some of the cherry tomatoes are as tall as me now. The real fun comes once everything needs to be picked 2-3 times a week on top of all the plant maintenance.

I've been there with horses. When it's an animal no one thinks you're crazy for acting quickly. How much loss have you experienced due to this?

 

[Coir]

Not really any loss yet other then sleep and cash! There was some setback to the tomatoes due to the ethylene but they will recover quickly once the new furnace is in. Heading to town shortly for the rest of the parts needed. The new furnace is a huge improvement in efficiency. It burns 1 less gallon an hour of propane for the same heat output so it will pay for itself in the first 2 years. The downside is that it needs a completely different system for venting and intake.

 

[lino]

Meet TomatoBis

 

[lino]

most likely kill your plants w/o special hormones but can be pulled off with nothing but a cloths pin when grafting cannabis to Toms.