DIY TomTato Grafting Tomatoes onto Potatoes 2015

Discussion in 'Edible Gardening' started by JWK, Mar 18, 2015.

  1. DRB

    DRB Gardener

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    They look just fine, JWK. What I have found this year is that with top grafting the stem sizes have to be spot on otherwise it won't take. abut with top cleft grafting if the scion stem is smaller than root stem they tend to be OK but not vice versa. So think you will be fine.

    I have half a tray of neglected rootstock in a 40module tray. Bit leggy but still fairly thin stems. I am going to try top cleft grafting a few side runners pruned off the main plants to them and see how that goes. Have also tried two scions into one cleft. I will start introducing light and reducing humidity today to that one (tricky bit)
    See below
    P1050414.JPG


    Let us know after W/E how Pot/Toms going..........
     
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    • JWK

      JWK Gardener Staff Member

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      The grafting clips are off and 8 out of 12 grafts have taken OK, close up of graft:
      20150424-P4240030.jpg

      Flower buds starting to form:
      20150424-P4240022.jpg


      They will be ready to plant in the greenhouse by early May (weather permitting). For the time being they are under growlights.
       
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      • DRB

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        Hi JWK
        How's the grafting going. Been busy busy with allotment and no time to catch up. I saw your spud things took OK and hope progressing well
        Anyway for who's interested this is a catch up of the grafts... Since I last wrote with top double cleft (One took One died) I've been busy nurturing the main batch of grafts. Greenhouse full and all growing well. Also got a polytunnel fairly full with double leader grafts. (No pics at present but will post some soon) Few small toms on quite a few. Here's a few pics from greenhouse

        Greenhouse pretty full now Vanessa grafts on right and Bloody Butcher grafts on left
        P1050688.JPG
        P1050695.JPG
        Bloody Butchers doing really well Few small toms on 1st and 2nd truss now

        Non Graft Sungold on Right
        P1050697.JPG

        View of the double graft weirdo I did. Doing OK P1050696.JPG
        Butcher Left hand leader and Vanessa on Right

        View of graft site now
        P1050693.JPG

        Since my last update I had one last fling at experimenting with grafting technique.
        graft diagram.GIF
        I tried this method with the shoot of a spare rootstock and two scions. This method does not require the stems to be similar size as you can adjust for this by the depth of the sliver cut out of the rootstock. I used a couple of tomato clips to hold the graft while healing
        P1050700.JPG

        The grafts sites now below on central rootstock
        P1050703.JPG

        Final entry now on the aubergine graft. (there is a pic earlier on in the thread when it was an infant)
        Recently it seems to have taken a huge surge. There is an ungrafted aubergine of same variety and same date of sowing on the Right.
        plant2.jpg
        The leaves are about 3x as big and there is lots of flowers now developing on it. So hope it is a success as far as yield goes Will post again when time.
        All the best to all the tom growers out there.
         
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        • DRB

          DRB Gardener

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          Found few recent pics I forgot I took in polytunnel a few days ago.
          P1050603.JPG

          Most of these have 2 leaders growing. Some are done by stopping the rootstock above the cotyledon and encouraging 2 side shoots and then grafting onto these. This is all very fiddly and difficult to get matching diameters for the side shoots and the scions. But is does mean you can graft 2 different varieties onto one rootstock. (I only did it to see if I could, as this is what the seed companies do when they sell you one plant with 2 varieties on it) I have two or three of these growing in the polytunnel. I posted a previous picture of the grafting of these above. Here's a plant now
          P1050600.JPG

          One side is a Shirley and the other Vannessa
          Graft site now. Clip still hanging on one side.
          P1050694.JPG

          The other plants with two leaders are created by just stopping a grafted plant (scion cut below cotyledon) to encourage side shooting

          Small graft plant with two sideshoots
          P1050362.JPG

          P1050362a.jpg

          Two leaders now.
          P1050605.JPG

          Stopped this one further up and have three leaders
          P1050606.JPG
          All have trusses forming on them and are growing evenly. I will have to see how they go. Hopefully they won't get struck down by some dreadful tomato plague before I can assess what works best with the grafting.
          More to follow as season goes on hopefully
           

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          • JWK

            JWK Gardener Staff Member

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            Thanks for the update DRB, very useful information and clear pictures. They all look strong and healthy, would you say there is any difference n size between your grafted and non-grafted plants at the moment?
             
          • JWK

            JWK Gardener Staff Member

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            PS: I've been away for a few days so my TomTatoes have had to fend for themselves, they have done pretty well and are growing very quickly now. All my grafted plants are a little shorter than my grafted 'controls'. I have a few tiny tomatoes forming. Hope to get some photos next weekend when I catch up.
             
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            • DRB

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              Hi JWK
              Height wise grafts now slightly taller as have caught up following grafting process. The main difference is that the plants are far more sturdy looking Thicker stems and more foliage. Very good numbers of flowers on trusses. We need some better weather though. I have cut a couple of leaves out of each grafted Vanessa plant due to the excess foliage. This is not a problem on the plants with 2 leaders though (or the Bloody Butchers) and they are of similar height to the singletons but much more flowers. I think this is the way forward. A lot of professional grafters recommend 2 leaders due to the vigour of the rootstock to overcome the foliage issue and also it seems to maximise production. A couple of comparison photos below.
              P1050718.jpg
              Vanessa graft singleton Front Right and Graft with double leader behind. A bit shorter but not much. Not as foliar as singleton but hard to tell from photo

              P1050724.JPG
              Singleton BB graft front right and BB graft with double leader behind. 6 trusses on that one and 4 on the singleton so far. Time will tell though as the season goes on as to productivity. Keep your updates coming JWK
               
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              • JWK

                JWK Gardener Staff Member

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                Difficult to get a clear picture of individual plants in my greenhouse are they are really packed in along with other non-tomato stuff at the moment
                20150526-P5260049.jpg


                The next photo shows the difference in height between the TomTato on the left and the non-grafted tomato on the right. I reckon the grafting sets them back by 10 days or so, but they will catch up and overtake in time:
                20150526-P5260053.jpg

                Got some tiny fruit starting:
                20150526-P5260054.jpg

                The TomTato stems are thicker and sturdier:
                20150526-P5260065.jpg
                 
              • DRB

                DRB Gardener

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                Long time No write , JWK
                Hope all well with the growing. Busy busy here. Hence the time lapse. All shooting up well on allotment especially since heat wave and rain. Had a mishap with some onions though this year. Root rot Arghhh! Pulled affected ones out and rest seem Ok. But can't grow them in that patch again I believe.
                Anyway Toms.... Something went through the polytunnel. Leaves all curled up and plants sort of stopped growing so eventually pulled them out 2 weeks ago. I think I put them out too early in the tunnel and we had a lot of very cold nights early on. Still never mind. Greenhouse is a different matter. All strong and nearly topped out. I think I will have enough toms from there. Been a good success the grafts. Few pics below. Bloody Butchers have been a real revelation this year. Great plants and so sturdy.

                Vanessa graft Big Fruit
                P1050736.JPG

                P1050741.JPG

                These are the Butchers. Prolific
                P1050743.JPG

                P1050744.JPG
                 
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                • JWK

                  JWK Gardener Staff Member

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                  It could have been hormonal weedkiller damage, tomatoes are ultra-sensitive to the smallest whiff if your neighbours used it and the spray drifted, they can even react if you have it on your clothes, the upper leaves and growing point go all distorted like this:
                  [​IMG]
                   
                • JWK

                  JWK Gardener Staff Member

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                  They look excellent DRB, very strong and healthy.

                  My potato/tomato grafts are looking good too although not as advanced as yours, in fact I've not had any ripe fruit off them yet (in contrast to my non-grafted controls which started ripening about a week ago).
                   
                • DRB

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                  I think you could be right re poly toms They did look like that in the end at the growing points. no idea where it came from but gradually went through them so decided enough was enough. still greenhouse OK. Learnt a lot of lessons with this grafting lark this year though. Aubergine graft is like a triffid and now setting some fruit. Though had a few rot and drop off when small. I think that is just because it is not consistently hot and dry enough for them Need some settled weather and they will do well. I will get a photo of the beast for you later today. Having day off from allotment and plants for trip to Bakewell (Rest day)
                   
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                  • DRB

                    DRB Gardener

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                    As promised Photo of grafted aubergine and ungrafted next to it P1050749.JPG

                    P1050750.JPG

                    You can see how vigorous the root system is. Its the same with the grafted Toms (Need bigger buckets really)
                    Grafted
                    P1050751.JPG

                    Ungrafted
                    P1050754.JPG
                     
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                    • JWK

                      JWK Gardener Staff Member

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                      I had very variable results in the end, whilst the tomato tops were decimated by botrytis/mould to the extent I had to cut them all down in mid October the potato roots continued to grow. By late October they looked like this:
                      20151018-PA180034.jpg

                      When I harvested them I had high hopes and some roots provided around 4.5 lbs each, this is the King Edwards:
                      20151018-PA180052.jpg

                      So that was much better yield than last year and the tubers were nice and clean and tasty.

                      However I had an equal number of failures with very few spuds, I was banking on Pink Fir Apple but this is all I got from two plants (on the right below), less than a lb per plant:
                      20151018-PA180054.jpg

                      Overall I had good success with King Edward and Cara, all other varieties were not worth the trouble: Desiree, Charlotte and Pink Fir Apple.

                      It was a poor season for the tomato scions, I had good yields and tasty fruit from Sungold and Black Cherry but the rest were average and worse - the Gardeners Delight were watery and bland. I grew a few non-grafted plants alongside as controls, these tomatoes were just the same so the poor results were nothing to do with the potato rootstock affecting the tomato growth/taste. By all accounts most of us had a poor season with tomatoes generally due to the lack of sun.

                      Give the amount of effort needed to do the grafting I don't think it's worthwhile for me to carry on, especially now I have an allotment and space is no longer a problem. It was an interesting experiment, it shows it can be done and if you only have a small space you can get two crops in one but choose your varieties carefully.
                       
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                      • DRB

                        DRB Gardener

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                        Hi JWK
                        Interesting to here your results from last year. Nearly time to kick off again. Will be putting up propagating tent for seedlings in greenhouse soon and firing up the new modified healing chamber ( will post pic) You will see that we are obviously in the period of dark cold days and that us tinkerers need to pass the time somehow!! Anyway I will be giving the grafting another shot as had fairly good year with toms in greenhouse (posted some pics end of year in gallery) but as I said polytunnel toms were an early failure and ripped them out. Going to graft aubergine varieties onto Arnold Tom rootstocks as well As the one grafted Black Beauty from last year I grafted did really well and got some huge aubergines off. Will sign off now as heading to allotment to wallow in the mud for an hour or two.
                         
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