Quote:
Originally Posted by BigVanVader
If you can control everything like Mark does I doubt the time investment would be worth it. If I had a real greenhouses instead of coldframes I wouldnt bother. Heirlooms seem to do fine if you can keep them from getting wet and control temps etc and Mark is already killing it.
|
All the big guys I see pictures of that are doing precision controlled environment are all using grafts.
The limited data I can find implies a 0-50 yield increase with grafts. I wanna test that side by side to get my own first hand data and satisfy my curiosity.
As far as time, I really wouldn't have time invested, as I'd be paying a professional grafter. In fact, I'd save time because now I don't have to raise my seedlings. Yes I have to pay the grafter, but I am freed up for 6 weeks to work on other stuff. If there is then a yield bump over a standard plant that is significantly above the graft cost, that would be the goal. Plus some disease tolerance increase would be like getting insurance.
I already figure I have at least one dollar per plant in cost with labor raising my own non-grafted seedlings. Paying another dollar to get a grafted plant done for me by an experienced grafter seems negligible.
If I get 25 lbs per plant on 450 non grafted plants, and see just a 10% yield gain with grafts, that's another 1,125 lbs of fruit.
At $2.60 per pound, that's another $2,925 in revenue for spending an extra $450.