Best grafted tomato varieties?

[Delerium]

Bill & Stvrob Congrats on the successful grafts. They all look GREAT! My next batch of Grafts will most likely be in DE. Now did you both use only top grafting or did you happen to try some with side grafting? I've been wanting to try some Pumpkin/Cucumber grafts for fun as the weather warms up a bit more.

[Stvrob]

Delerium. I tried a few side grafts before I had grafting clips. They worked but there grafts have not healed well and they don't look so stable. Everything else is top grafted with silicone grafting clips. Except for a few bud grafts I did out of curiosity which did work well.
Where is DE?

Nevermind DE = Diatomaceous earth?

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Delerium

Bill & Stvrob Congrats on the successful grafts. They all look GREAT! My next batch of Grafts will most likely be in DE. Now did you both use only top grafting or did you happen to try some with side grafting? I've been wanting to try some Pumpkin/Cucumber grafts for fun as the weather warms up a bit more.

The reason I will not be using DE as the seedling soil when doing the grafting, despite having some damping off problems, is because of the leaning that is caused by some of the grafts. DE doesn't support the plant as well for some reason and they will fall over when the graft leans over or wilts a bit. In my first few batches of grafts I set the seedlings in the cups of potting soil with all of the original DE in place and during grafting and afterwards had a terrible time keeping them upright. I had to come back in and pack the bases with potting soil to keep them vertical. I think the problem is the lightness of the DE when it gets the slightest bit dry and during grafting you don't want the rootstock too wet. DE would probably work fine once the plant is larger and has built up a good root structure but with the young plants it was a problem. It seems that by sprinkling a little Captan on the soil surface and then a bit of DE over it before setting them in the healing chamber, I have stopped most of the damping off problem and I don't have the plants falling over either.

Bill

[mikestuff]

Originally Posted by Mlm1

Naysen, thanks for the reminder on the rootstock. Can you start some more scion to use with your smaller rootstock? Also if you wait longer to graft sometimes the rootstock catch up-you just need the larger clips. I think I will start my first batch tomorrow, mostly rootstock and a few scion, then in a week I'll start more rootstock and more scion and then in two weeks I'll start mostly scion and a few more rootstock. That way I should be able to find some nice matched pairs.
Marla

I ran into exactly the same thing. I am giving my tray of rootstock a lot more light and cutting back on the scion tray. We'll see how this works out. If I do this again, I'll start the rootstock a week or so before the scions.

[aclum]

Hi All,

Well, just after my most recent post touting my grafting successes, I immediately had a string of bad luck. The grafts that were in the first chamber and looking good all died on me. (The 5 good ones I had all survived). Had a couple more batches of failures (fortunately I don't do many at a time). Then I had a batch that was looking good after 2 days in the dark and then some shade that suddenly began to slump over. I figured they were going to be goners anyway so just for the heck of it aI spritzed them with more water and gave them more light. And low and behold they recovered!! (at least 4 of 5 did). (When I was starting out I was having problems with over misting so had cut way back on that).

I'm learning that, at least for me, there are so many variables and intangeables and alot of intuition involved at this point in my learning curve that it's sort of hard to predict anything yet.

I've got about 10 new "rootstock" seedlings sprouted and think I can match them up to some scions by "steering" the growth over the next week or so and then do a few more batches.

I counted my unused silicon clips and figure I've done approximately 100 grafts so far with 16 successful grafts to date. I think I lost about my first 30 or more grafts so the success rate has gone up a bit over time.

I'm probably going to try grafting my cucumbers to japanese squash rootstock (like the guy in the Johnny's video). And if I get really bored or ambitious, I might later try using some of my older tomato backups for some cleft grafting.

Great that Bill and Stvrob have getting some good results. How's everyone else faring?

Anne

[Stvrob]

I recycled a lot of plant parts. When I cut off the growing tips of the rootstocks I rooted them and used them later. For scions, if I cut above the cotyledons I let them sucker and used them later. Also I've been experimenting with bud grafts, putting several different heirloom varieties on a single Plant and it actually works pretty well. Don't need to mess with any healing chambers for that.

[Stvrob]

Has anyone tried superglue? Everything I've touched with superglue has died but I saw a video on the web. I wonder if it was a hoax?

[Delerium]

yes i tried the super glue and they failed. Maybe the glue is toxic to the plants.

[b54red]

Well it looks this morning like I am going to have a huge failure with my fourth attempt at grafting. I grafted over 125 plants over a 3 day period and then Bam! it got really cold. With days only in the low or mid 40's and nights dipping to below freezing. I was forced to keep most of my grafts in the healing chambers way too long because of the cold slowing the healing dramatically. Despite using the Captan before putting them in the chambers damping off started showing in each of the chambers so I had to give them more air and light. The Captan really worked for the first 5 days or so but it could only do so much in preventing the damping off. Maybe I should have applied it again after 3 or 4 days. The plants were just in the chambers too long without the grafts healing. I even had leaf deterioration in some due to the constant dark and moisture. I am going to have to find a place where I can keep my grafts where it is warmer or put in some kind of heater for the porch if I am going to have much success grafting this early in the year. At least most of these were done with cheap seed for practice and I will end up with plenty of plants for my first planting but a lot of people waiting for my free seedlings will be disappointed.

Now that all of my chambers are open I can only wait and see how many will recover over the next week now that the sun is out and the temps are moderating a bit.

I have learned two very important things with this experimenting I have been doing. One is the temperature is very important for the grafting and the other is that keeping them in damp healing chambers too long is not an alternative. I gambled on both and lost. I am continuing learning the hard way as usual.

Hope everyone else is having better luck and I think with what I have learned I will do a better job when I attempt my next grafting in a couple of weeks in much warmer conditions.

Bill

[Mlm1]

Bill and Stvrob you both have some very nice looking plants. Bill, sorry to hear about the latest but thanks for sharing the information. I am now considering putting my bin on my heating mat. I think I am still a week or two away from grafting-it seems like I have been saying 2 weeks for a month now. But I do think I will have some to graft soon. I normally don't plant out until the 2nd week in April so I think I am on track. Good luck to everyone.
Marla

[Stvrob]

Im sorry to hear that Bill. This cold snap kinda put a damper on things. I know dragging plants out to put them in the sun just to drag them back in in the afternoon is getting pretty old. January and February was warmer than this. Its supposed to get warmer here this week, but still unseasonably cold.

[z_willus_d]

I'll mirror Marla's comments. Impressive grafts y'all (and to those with failures, know you have plenty of company in me). I think I've mustered together about 10 successful grafts at this point. I've gone through well over 100. I've been recycling the RS tip after graft cutting to root for a 2nd and sometimes 3rd go. If I can get another 30 grafts, and if they all manage to survive once I harden them off outside... well I can live with that.
-naysen

[livinonfaith]

Okay, I'm the one who started this thread and still have yet to graft the first plant!
I finally pulled the trays out to graft last weekend and realized that roots were streaming out of the bottom of the cells into the water. The cells had to be cut in half in order to get them out without damaging the roots. Also, as others have noted, they were just really unstable in the DE, kind of flopping around.

I re-potted them deeper in larger containers, (still in the DE) but figured they probably need a couple of days to let them settle in their new environments.

Maybe some day I'll get around to grafting these little guys!

[JamesL]

Originally Posted by livinonfaith

Okay, I'm the one who started this thread and still have yet to graft the first plant!

That is funny!
This thread had a lot of traction with great first hand experience. I really enjoyed following it for both the "real time" play by play and the practical advice.
Kudos to all of you!

I am T minus 1 week and counting for germination and I can't wait. Acquired maxifort as rootstock. Did I say I can't wait?:

Styrob- Glue grafting trial is still on the agenda.

[Stvrob]

Good luck with the superglue. I wish I had at least one reliable source to confirm it is actually possible. There was a YouTube on it somewhere but I'm thinking that it might just be a hoax. Every plant I touched with superglue died within 3 days.