Quote:
Originally Posted by jtjmartin
Bill:
Last year, many of my grafted plants grew over 20 feet with lean and lower. I planted some non-grafted Prudens Purple - they were big, rugged, beautiful plants that outgrew everything else. Good fruit set then - WHAM! The wilting started. Other non-grafted tomatoes were hit too.
I know I have moles & voles in the garden. The dog digs for them and the cats catch them. I've wondered if they damaged the roots and allow BW easy entrance.
I ordered my RST in November or December. I'm have some extra RST seed if you need them. PM me.
Jeff
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Thanks for the offer Jeff but I am keeping my rooting seedlings going for now and they should get me through the rest of this season.
Jeff you probably don't have the terrible fusarium problems that are present in my garden down here; but you may have some. I don't know if RKN is a problem for you either but it does sound like Bacterial wilt is a problem for you so you may want to keep grafting some or all of your plants with the RST root stock. If I didn't have the other problems I would not graft just for Bacterial wilt as it doesn't show up every year and at its worst it only took out about 10% of my plants one season. I have heard horror tales of some gardens with terrible Bacterial wilt problems but luckily I never had anything but minor occurrences of it here.
Pruden's Purple is one that gets multiple spots in my garden every season because of its productivity and ability to set fruit in high heat. Pruden's Purple used to produce larger fruit before I started grafting it so maybe it is one that doesn't do as well after grafting. It does produce lots and lots of fruit but the vines are smaller and the fruit averages smaller on the grafted plants. However large the fruit on the non-grafted plants fusarium or RKN would take them out before they could make more than a few so the decision to graft was a no brainer so it only took me a few years to start grafting.
Bill