Kitchen Garden Forum

There has been an interesting topic running on Grafted Tomatoes viewtopic.php?f=4&t=9517, an article in the magazine and TV coverage. The earliness that people seem to achieve is tempting if it can be combined with flavour and done economically.
I am wondering if anybody has tried any of the other "vegetables" that are coming available grafted? Dobies for example are offering a wide range http://www.dobies.co.uk/Search.aspx?term=grafted. I repeated fail with Butternuts and Aubergines and wonder if these offer a solution, have to be good to justify over £3 a plant.

You don't have to be constrained to the grafted subjects offered by catalogues, you could always have a go at doing your own. You'll be surprised how easy it is. Besides, it's fun and satisfying and you can save a few bob. I've grafted tomatoes using the old-fashioned approach technique, which has the advantage that if the graft does not take, at least you can continue to grow on the scion plant on its own roots. Also cucumbers onto Fig Leaved Gourd (Cucurbita ficifolia) with not such a high take rate, but good nonetheless. Grafting certainly seems to be all the rage these days, but commercial growers have been doing it since way back when. Even so, the number of possible rootstock / scion combinations is almost limitless and I'm sure they have not yet all been tried.

I'm going to have a go at grafting apples onto bought-in rootstocks this winter but I'm not sure I'd bother with it for everyday veggies. I'm sure it's very effective on a commercial scale but I have no problem growing what I grow anyway so can't really see the point. Other than doing it simply because you can.

My thoughts were the same as yours Geoff, pretty expensive at £3 per planted seed, and being F1 it won't come true from seed either. I think I would rather try a good early tomato home grafted if I had the time, varieties vary from planting to harvest starting 65 and ending more than 90 days. Also if you save seed the plants make their own adjustment to local conditions over time.

I should have read Joe Maiden's article before I started this thread, I had only skimmed and thought it was only Tomatoes.
His conclusion seems to be that Tomatoes, Aubergines and Peppers all start well but run out steam. With all due respect to Joe I wonder if it is cultivation technique? This article in the Guardian seems to suggest the contrary, i.e. they carry on well into the Autumn http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... -trilliums. I'll post some other thoughts on the Tomato thread - perhaps I shouldn't have started a new one.
There is no mention of Butternuts, I would still be interested if anybody has tried these.