Grafting tomato plants

General tips / questions on seeding & planting

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vivienz
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My curiosity got the better of me, as it always does, when I was ordering my tomato seeds and I was intrigued by some seeds for tomato grafting rootstock. Of course I bought some! They're well on their way now, along with all my other toms and I'm going to have a go at grafting a few plants. I haven't decided which varieties yet, but I will do one grafted and one non-grafted so that I can directly compare them. The rootstock seeds aren't cheap at about £4.50 for 12, but the one of the advantages is supposed to be a greatly increased yield.
I will probably do the grafting in the next few days as the plants are about the right size, so it will be an interesting experiment.
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vivienz - just give it a try! I have been considering this for a bit & the new clips & stuff for the grafts is much easier to achieve success than when it first popped up. Then there was just the opportunity to buy the grafted plant with little info on the mother plant & stuff with sticky tape & perfectly angled cuts was overwhelming for a novice. But you really do get a better crop for sure from grafted.

Good luck! Keep us updated!
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Geoff
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I did this for a few years with Aegis as the rootstock. I found the greatest difficulty was getting plants of the stock and variety with roughly the same diameter stem to make a neat graft, I can't remember now which I decided I had to sow first. It did create some good plants but I don't think I was quite skilled enough. Then I bought the polytunnel and just grew more plants. Good luck, there is satisfaction in seeing it work when it looks quite unlikely.
vivienz
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The instructions do say to sow the rootstock 2 weeks before the main variety. Of course, I completely forgot this and did them at the same time. Sigh. However, I have enough plants that there are ones of similar or smaller diameter than the rootstock so that should be okay.
Frankentomatoes - here I come!
vivienz
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A quick update - failed at the first hurdle. Boo hoo. I followed the instructions on the Kings Seeds site and grafted at an early stage, once the first two leaves had appeared but I think this was too early and the stems just weren't sturdy enough to stand the weight of the graft and the grafting clip. Lesson learned.
I would plant the rest of the rootstock seeds but I have so, so many tomato plants right now that I'm not sure I have the heart to give the grafting another go - I reckon I will be selling tomato plants on a little roadside stall with an honesty box. I had really good germination rates and, of course, planted for a failure rate which never happened.
So, the grafting experiment will need to wait until next year, methinks, but I've learned some useful stuff from the failure.
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Primrose
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Thats disappointing and bad luck Vivien but when you're a beginner with nobody to show you the ropes on the spot, it's hard to get things right. I,ve always imagined you would need a fairly sturdy main stem for grafting to withstand the shock of being sliced up and that th plant would need to be at permanent planting out stage before that point had been reached.

I know its not the same process but I,ve often found an overlong sideshoot lurking away on a tomato plant, nipped it out and potted it up to produce another successful plant but they,ve always been about five inches long and the stem about a quarter of an inch in diameter so perhaps your seedlings need to be at that stage before they,re sturdy enough to withstand the shock.

Why not wait a little while and try again?. You might be more fortunate second time round and it will be another successful skill under your belt, especially if you're going to have enough spare seeds/plants to practice on?
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I would agree with Primrose that this is a pretty good opportunity to continue the experiment as you already have enough tomatoes. Sow another couple of rootstock seeds & then when they are bigger match a tom in stem thickness? Also thinking these are delivered quite late (well mine were last year) & not that big (hardy looking but not too tall), so maybe a bit too early?
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Geoff
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retropants
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I once snapped the growing point, about halfway down, of one of mine when it was planted out. The stem would have been about 1/4 inch I suppose. Being at the allotment, with limited tools for grafting (!) I simply bound it up, round and round with string, I think it had a very thin connecting bit intact. It continued to grow and produced a crop. It had two chances. I was surprised it worked, but I didn't have any replacements at that stage, so had no other option. I definitely think it's worth another try Vivienz, when they are mor sturdy.
vivienz
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Thanks for the encouragement, chaps, I shall sow the rest of my rootstock seeds today. It was always intended to be an experiment and something to learn from, so I'm not daunted by first time failure. And I really do have so very many tomato plants! Potted on another load today - my sister in law asked me whether I've contact Dolmio yet.
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Primrose
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Vivien - you can never have too many tomato plants if you have the growing space ! An over-abundance of tomatoes at harvesting season will always bring you new friends ! Unlike surplus courgettes where neighbours will suddenly cross the road if they see you approaching with some, home grown tomatoes, often with more flavour than supermarket ones, are always welcome as they are more adaptable for use.
Last edited by Primrose on Sat Mar 13, 2021 4:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Colin2016
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Read the other day that rather than have one stem per plant select two.

Anybody tried this?
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Primrose
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Have very very rarely ever grown a tomato plant with two stems. Sounds about as weird as those attempts to sell tomato plants whixh grow tomatoes above the ground and potato tubers underground.
vivienz
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I'll be happy to graft one! I found my unused seeds and had completely forgotten that in anticipation of failure, I still had 2 rootstock seedlings untouched. They're a weedy looking pair so I shall leave them to fatten up for a while and use them once they're a bit sturdier. The experiment continues!
vivienz
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Geoff wrote:Bit of light reading viewtopic.php?f=4&t=9517&hilit=tomato+graft


Thanks for the link, Geoff, it's very informative. And I now want to graft an aubergine as well as my tomatoes!
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