Grafted Tomatoes - Anyone any experience?

[SCChris]

We live along the coast and from May well into July we have foggy weather known locally as June Gloom. This holds the temps down and if I were just a mile or 2 inland I'd have the daytime heat to set and grow tomatoes for 60 more days a year.. I hear that in No. California to Washington state, grafted tomatoes really extends the season. These grafted plants can have 1 or 2 varieties on the same root and the root stock is typically more robust and disease resistant.

Anybody with direct info?

Thanks

Chris

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Grafted Tomatoes - Anyone any experience?

Chris,
I'm clueless regarding tomato grafting, but my brother who lives in Camarillo where it's always much cooler than OC, put up a plastic greenhouse around his tomatoes last year. His plants have continued to bear fruit throughout the winter and he brought tomatoes to our Super Bowl party that looked they were grown in August. Just a thought.
John

[SCChris]

Re: Grafted Tomatoes - Anyone any experience?

My first bit of info, on grafted tomatoes, came from a sales woman at Plant Depot in San Juan Capistrano. Apparently they have a shipment of plants coming in about mid March and day or two later a speaker scheduled to talk about techniques for growing Organic Tomatoes and disease control. I’ve never heard of, let alone though about, grafted vegetables, but when I Google the subject up, there it is.. Apparently it’s a bigger deal on the east coast and up north, but all things considered it might have real advantages for us right along the coast. I’m planning to pick up a few and plant them right beside the normal, un-grafted, versions.

Tomato grafting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Re: a greenhouse, I've been entertaining putting one up, but it hasn’t risen to the top of the to-do list. I’d be forced to put in a slab, to keep the varmints out and tie the structure to and all of a sudden we’re talking dollars again.

Chris

[TropicalCoasting]

Re: Grafted Tomatoes - Anyone any experience?

We grew grafted tomatoes all the time in temperate zones Melbourne.
They needed staking and preferred a trellis type arrangement ,you get a good bang for your buck.
Up here in the sub tropics I just plant seeds and use cuttings or pick the self seeders from the worm poo.
The idea here is a long growing seasons means you want less more often over a longer period
Nematodes attack tomato roots too if they stay in the same spot for too long.
The graft of choice here is a member of the Solanaceae family that locally is called devil weed you can use it to graft eggplant too.
similar to this
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_cmB8TdwNcm...Nightshade.jpg
I will give it a go one day to see what happens
Might be worth it for San Marzannos quick big crop

[SCChris]

Re: Grafted Tomatoes - Anyone any experience?

Interesting! The broader family includes tomatillo and petunia. The closer relatives include potato and eggplant. I was told that in our area some grafted plants have continued to produce through the winter. To what degree they could produce and at what quality is unknown.

Thanks TropicalCoasting!

Chris

[SCChris]

Re: Grafted Tomatoes - Anyone any experience?

I have located 2 local retailers that will have grafted tomatoes.
Plant Depot will receive their shipment before the weekend.
Dana Point Nursery who will receive their shipment in about mid April.

Chris

I'll forward more info as I get it and as they grow.

Supprise, Supprise. Green Thumb and Armstrong Garden centers have them as well.

[SCChris]

Re: Grafted Tomatoes - Anyone any experience?

I picked up 2 in quart containiers at Armstrong in San Juan Capistrano. Both of these were robust and just waiting for a new home. In addition I picked up 3 more at Plant Depot in 4 inch pots. None of these have the same variety grafted to the root stock so I'm doing a shotgun look to narrow down things to a couple that really work in my garden. I'll let you all know what I have in the ground and how they workout. I also planted a "non-grafted" variety named "Glacier" that has 3 tomatoes set so far.

:-)

Chris

[SCChris]

Re: Grafted Tomatoes - Anyone any experience?

I figured it was time for an update and a couple of photos. The tomatoes that set haven't really dome much more than that. The grafted tomatoes are really putting on growth and are flowering like mad and I have a few fruits set. In the photos, the left side were planted as 4" standard seedlings and the right side were 6" grafted seedlings. I'm guessing but it looks like the grafted have about 4 times the growth, now if they produce, I'll be thick with tomatoes in July.

Chris