Quote:
Originally Posted by DonDuck
Bill,
I think your advice to graft common tomato varieties to disease and pest resistant root stocks is the very best answer for many garden problems. I investigated it many years ago, but since I germinate my seedlings under lights, I would need to double the space of my light table to produce the same number of plantable seedlings. When I investigated the cost of the seeds for the tomato plants with resistant roots for use as root stock, they seemed ridiculously expensive. I decided to simply fight on by trying to use available methods and plant many varieties like Big Beef with proven resistance.
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I felt the same way for years. Seed cost for true root stock seed have come down significantly, particularly when bought in larger amounts from the right places. The seed are good for at least a couple of years and longer if kept properly. The biggest obstacles are learning how and timing seed planting to allow for the recovery after grafting.
Big Beef was my insurance tomato for many years until my soil ended up with all three races of fusarium wilt. Once that happened Big Beef was not a whole lot better than some heirlooms. I was pretty much forced to try grafting and my only regret is that I didn’t start grafting much sooner.
Bill