January 17, 2013 | #16 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Alabama
Posts: 7,068
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I think the old fashion razor blades halved like the one used in the video would be much better. They are so much thinner than Exacto blades so they should slice through cleaner. Now if I can find some.
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January 17, 2013 | #17 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Long Island NY
Posts: 1,992
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b54,
I think Mischka mentioned this on another thread - Wilkinson Sword at Wally world. $1.76 for 10 http://www.walmart.com/ip/20926177?a...l5=pla&veh=sem |
January 21, 2013 | #18 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Eastern Suburb of Sacramento, CA
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Quote:
-naysen |
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January 21, 2013 | #19 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: NW Indiana
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If one of the primary benefits of the "bury deep" practice is to develop a more vigorous root system, that shouldn't be necessary when grafting to rootstock such as Maxifort. It's got vigor aplenty. From what I've read, the challenge is to limit the vigor in order to balance foliage/fruit.
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January 21, 2013 | #20 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Eastern Suburb of Sacramento, CA
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Forty, so I've heard. Marla said as much. There some kind of comfort I get, perhaps irrationally, in having the vine planted down a ways. It seems more able to support itself under load or wind/weather. Less likely to snap under pressure, etc. I suppose that may not be true, and there's always caging techniques to help with support. It sounds like a lot of us are taking the extra effort to try grafting this year, so there should be plenty of data to sift through on the benefits/downsides.
Thx, Naysen |
January 21, 2013 | #21 |
Tomatovillian™
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I set out my fall plants and experimented with not burying them deep. Many I planted even with the top of the cup and I couldn't tell much difference in the growth pattern. One thing I did notice is that I didn't lose as many of my newly planted tomatoes to Bacterial wilt with the shallower planted ones; but that could have just been luck. I am going to see if it makes a difference this spring and summer when I set out the grafted plants.
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January 21, 2013 | #22 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Nov 2011
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Naysen, I may try grafting both under and over the cotyledons to see which one works better.
Having watched a few of these videos, some of the grafts seem awfully close to the ground. Makes me nervous! Of course, having never grafted before, I should probably be more worried about just getting the graft to take than where it is on the stem! |
January 21, 2013 | #23 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Southfield, Michigan
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About planting deep or not planting deep is still a puzzle to me. When a volunteer tomato pops up in my compost pile they are not planted deep and they grow just fine.
My friend Edda Fears is 93 years old and cannot bend over anymore, but still gardens. What she does is take her tomato plants out of a 4 pack, tosses them on top of the ground and places a shovel of dirt on top of the tomatoes. Thats it. Her plants grow as big as my plants and I plant deep. All I can think of is that I plant deep into the cold soil and Edda plants on top of the soil that is nice and warm and her plants get big. |
January 21, 2013 | #24 |
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Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: NJ, zone 7
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Is anyone planning on grafting multiple varieties on one plant?
I was thinking of grafting few cherries... Ella |
January 21, 2013 | #25 |
Tomatovillian™
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Location: Alabama
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January 21, 2013 | #26 |
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The problem I'm having right now is that my rootstock seedlings are very thin, whereas my scions are much thicker. Stupid me, I thought the rootstock would be more vigorous and started them two days later than the others.
The good thing is that they are all still pretty tiny. I'm going to leave the rootstock on the heating pad and move the others to a cool area. Maybe that will slow them down until the rootstock catches up. |
January 23, 2013 | #27 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: NJ, zone 7
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I jast have to start the rootstock earlier by a month or so...
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January 23, 2013 | #28 |
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I planted all of mine within hours of each other and they are all over the place as to height and thickness. Many of my rootstock are bigger than the scions but not all. I guess I'll just try to match them up the best I can. Looks like some will be ready in a few days and others may take a week or more. I got some different size clips so that I can do as many as possible on the same day.
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February 2, 2013 | #29 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2011
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I started my scion tomatoes at the same time as the Maxifort root-stock a couple weeks ago to the day. I'm finding that the Maxifort seeds are germinating erratically, if at all. A few seem relatively strong, but most are paradoxically weak and quickly falling behind their scion counterparts. I've doubled-up on the rootstock seed starts, and I expect sooner or later I'll catch up with rootstock starts. The problem is the more vigorous scion heirloom tomato seedlings already show much thicker stems, further progression, etc. I had very bad graft success rates (0%) this Winter when trying to mate inconsistent stem diameters.
I'm not sure what to do about this other than to take the lesson to start the Maxifort seeds a good 2-3 weeks ahead of their scion pairs. This is just a warning for anyone else who might experience the same results. BTW, I use an LED light system for efficiency, hence the magenta haze in my pics. Unlabeled seedlings are my rootstock; blue-tagged Beaufort, else Maxi. The covered dome is my plantation of future RS seedlings, if they ever germinate successfully. Good luck! -naysen Last edited by z_willus_d; February 2, 2013 at 10:27 PM. |
February 2, 2013 | #30 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Northern California
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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 |
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