Message Board - BigPumpkins.com

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

Park Seed sent me an email today with grafted tomatoes, several varieties from cherry to beefsteak. Here is an example:
http://parkseed.com/grafted-tomato-brandywine/p/87771-PK-3/

$24.95 a threepack plus shipping....

I am tempted to buy some to see if I can get the rootstock to grow me a few shoots to be propagated for further work.

2/8/2012 8:25:06 PM

Hamilton Nj

deb, i tryed last year and had alot of set backs ,poor germ rate seeds from jonnys, could never keep plants moist enough all died withinn 3 days,lol, so 24 bucks dont sound bad , i might try again but also gonna try cloneing its easier!! pizza

2/8/2012 9:40:50 PM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

Check my early 2010 diary, I was propagating suckers and doing air layers; and posted about it. I started two 7.18 Harps on 29 Dec 2009 and worked all that winter on making those two into more tomatoes.

2/9/2012 12:28:05 AM

East Carbon, Utah

Over the next few years, I think we'll see a huge explosion of grafted tomato plants for sale by the big seed companies. This will likely be some of the best tasting heirloom varieties (regular Brandywine NOT being one of them, in my opinion) onto robust rootstock.

Here's a link to a short slide presentation by Michael Bausher, a researcher in Florida. He tested about 10 different rootstock varieties -

http://ashs.org/db/horttalks/detail.lasso?id=642

I've been in contact with him by e-mail. He indicates that the variety He-Man (aka TX301) is no longer available.

From my limited research, I'm on the brink of ordering some Multifort seeds from Paramount seeds:

http://paramount-seeds.com/Paramountonline/tomato_varieties.htm#ROOTSTOCK

Problem is Paramount is geared towards large-scale commercial growers and I would need to order 250 seeds at a cost of $60.75 + S&H. I would need several people willing to split the seeds and the expense to justify this.

I think it would be well worth the effort if several of us gave it an honest try - grafting scions with genetics from giant tomatoes onto proven rootstock which produce huge, disease-resistant roots.

Any takers?

2/9/2012 1:44:06 PM

The North Coast

OkieGal- Pretty sure that the rootstocks will not sucker for you. The graft on the rootstock is done below the feeder leaves, this leaves no buds remaining.

SEAMSFASTER- grafted plants have supreme resistances and super vigor. I'd try Colosus (F1) from Johnnys seed. It is new for this year and plenty vigorous. At $17 per 50 seed it is not too bad. If you jump into the idea, find out what the ideal germination and young sprout conditions are. Try to find out if it is done in a heated greenhouse under the sun or what types of lights do they use. They are extremely picky when they are young. I got alot of low germination and then seedlings that looked stressed and grew SLOW. This is a big problem when you are trying to time it all up. I had to leave my scions in the dark for about a week until the rootstocks caught up. By far this is the hardest aspect of it all. The plants after the surgery grew great. I grew 17 varieties of heirloom tomatoes on commercial hybrid roots last year also sold hundreds of others at $7 a piece (no joke!).

Also you will need some 1.5 and 2.0 mm silicone clips also sold by Johnnys to do the top graft method. Good luck

2/9/2012 3:35:30 PM

Hamilton Nj

i had the 1.5 clips boy are they small,i also tryed a piece of tubeing it seemed to work better!!! lol pizza

2/9/2012 11:32:54 PM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

Yeah I could still hope, BC.... that they'd do something and sucker anyway.

For the $60.75 a 250, not horrid but not great for bulk. That's about a quarter a seed without shipping, I'd go in for 40 of them and pay a bubble to get them here....

2/10/2012 1:02:23 AM

East Carbon, Utah

I should have 200 extra Multifort seeds available by February 16th. These are available in lots of 10 AT COST through PayPal at:

http://www.gianttomatoseeds.com/tomato_seeds.html

If you would prefer an alternate method or have additional questions, please drop me an e-mail:

dale@gianttomatoseeds.com

I'll be glad to send your seeds in advance if you leave me your address. Sending a SASE will just cost us an extra stamp and envelope.

I, for one, am going to give this method a more serious try this year!

2/12/2012 7:59:44 PM

The North Coast

If you have not already seen it, take a look at the tomato grafting video posted on the Johnnys seed page. I wonder if you could figure out proper germination techniques from that fellow if you called him up? His rootstocks look beautiful. The rootstocks have to be treated differently somehow, it is a common complaint.

My rootstocks also turned a purple color under the leaves along with stunted growth. Eventually they reached grafting size but I wondered if the spectrum of the cool white florescent bulbs was not good. Like I said earlier, the scions were raging in the same conditions.

By the time the rootstocks were of age the scions were 3x the size even with me depriving them of light and water. It did all work out however, the light starved scions were quite leggy and had narrow stems still near the top of the plant. This allowed me to take a cutting off the plant and still have the plant to produce new suckers for the next round. And eventhough stems sizes should be identical to one another I have found that even a stem that is about 10-15% off is acceptable too.

I have found that top grafting with the clear silicon clips is the easiest to pull off. The clear clips allow for you to see the stems while you are inserting them and with a little experience you can see if you have good contact or not.

Good luck, if you deal in high numbers of plants you will be able to pull it off easily.

2/13/2012 10:03:25 AM

Hamilton Nj

awsome cant wait till my seeds arrive!!! thanks dale!!!

2/13/2012 11:03:45 PM

Hamilton Nj

batcave what do u think of useing a heat mat for seeds to keep chamber at 85 degrese along with a top!!! thanks for all the info!!!! pizza

2/13/2012 11:04:56 PM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

I have switched to 5700k CFL photography bulbs for plants along with some 'grow bulb' fluorescents, and I will know shortly if they are working better. I was told that some of the metal halide people were going to the 5700k 85 and 105 watt CFL's because they were cheaper to run and ran cooler.

Will let you know as I have starts right now under the lights. I will need to look up which brand I bought, as some are really panned for not firing or not lasting (85 watt was put in a ceramic base brooder light and light unit held base up and point down for about a 5 min burnin as it turned from looking like half burnt out to burned in and working well--it is in a permanently point down installation) The 85 watt is equivalent to 350 watts... yes it is BRIGHT

2/14/2012 1:17:57 AM

Hamilton Nj

i got 6500k cfl but they have to be put right close to plants there 6 inches from plants and they work good but not for heat,good thing is grafting is low light if any i was told to put in the dark last year but all mine died ,lol thanks deb

i think we are gonna see some nice tomatos this year!!! pizza

2/14/2012 1:43:45 AM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

Yes for grafting and just stuck cuttings, they go in their cloches and they get put in the dark place to get some indirect light but nothing near direct... the others are for seed starting and transpotted already rooted.

I can get other K range bulbs but 5700 were reasonable price.

2/14/2012 7:30:16 AM

The North Coast

yes tomatoes like a bit warmer environment to get going. I was able to get the few degrees over the ambient temperature by just putting the domes under the florescent lights and running them 24/7. Do what you need to do but as soon as they break the soil they will need ligh so it may be nice to have that on the ready.

Are all of you doing top graft? do you have the clips? You all may want to pitch in a get the 2 clip sizes needed and split them up.

2/15/2012 7:53:01 AM

The North Coast

A good technique to get more out of your rootstock is to clone the top that gets cut off. You can double your rootstocks that way and being so hard to get out of the ground it was a good option for me last year. I used a cloning gel and oasis cubes. Worked like a champ. The only drawback is inevetably you will bury nodes on the rootstock and they will later sucker up from the ground. They are easy to identify and cut.

2/15/2012 7:56:47 AM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

If you look at my early 2010 diary, I went into detail on cloning suckers and doing airlayering of tomatoes. If I had to cut the top off a rootstock plant you bet I'd be trying to clone that part.

2/15/2012 10:02:14 PM

East Carbon, Utah

The Multifort seeds have arrived! There are still 11 unclaimed lots.

2/16/2012 3:15:09 AM

Hamilton Nj

aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh, did not think of that batcave,lol that would help me alot,i got tons of cubes for rooting!!!

thank you!! pizza

2/16/2012 3:08:20 PM

The North Coast

Did I mention how much I love to make pizza? like from scratch??? Once a week, 52 weeks a year and sometimes twice.

A good rooting gel from a hydro store is so much better than the powder from home depot...

Get 'r done pizza

2/16/2012 4:31:27 PM

Hamilton Nj

i worked in a pizza shop for 10 or more years thats how i got my nickname,lol,
also i almost got fired for makeing a three foot calzone one day!!! i make 2 footers all the time mmmmmmmmm

thanks pizza

2/16/2012 8:18:42 PM

East Carbon, Utah

Only two lots (20 seeds) of Multifort seeds left.

2/20/2012 8:23:57 PM

wildone

Germany

Did you get my email?

Andreas

2/21/2012 2:08:37 AM

East Carbon, Utah

Andreas, if you're referring to dale@gianttomatoseeds.com, no, I did not receive your e-mail. Feel free to resend.
Dale

2/28/2012 12:46:14 PM

wildone

Germany

Yes, I tried to email you - will try again...

Andreas

2/28/2012 4:10:32 PM

Hamilton Nj

im done grafting just getting agrovated,lol, ill leave it to the exsperts!!! pizza

3/16/2012 11:16:49 PM