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Old February 4, 2013   #46
Stvrob
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Originally Posted by livinonfaith View Post
Oh Goodness, stvrob! If I achieve anywhere close to 75%, I will consider that a grand success!
Well, to be honest, the 75% didnt include the first trials, which were pretty close to 0%. Then I got some of the silicone grafting clips and things started working better.
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Old February 5, 2013   #47
b54red
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Made my first attempts at grafting yesterday and it was not pretty. My rootstock were generally much too large for my scions. Also found many had shaped stems that didn't match up. I ended up cutting some scions off right near the potting soil to get a chance at any size match with even the smallest of the rootstock. Another problem was leaning plants that made it hard for the scion to connect solidly with the rootstock. I ended cutting off nearly all of the top growth on some of the scions for them to work. I had to cut some of my rootstock far higher up than I wanted in order to find any that came close to matching in size. I did about 20 and then could find no more matches that were even close so I had to stop leaving me with a lot of rootstock plants that I can't graft to right now. Maybe in a few days I can find a stem higher up that will be small enough to graft to but I worry about grafting so far up on the plant. I don't see any chance of the scions getting large enough to catch the rootstock. I was only able to graft a few of the scion varieties which grew faster than the others. Many of the varieties I wanted a grafted plant for the most are turning out to be the slowest growing and so they have no chance of being grafted unless something gives.

The second set of seedlings I have started will be ready in a week or two. I started my rootstock for them a day latter but already the rootstock are bigger than the scions in most cases and I'm afraid I am going to have more of the same problems with them.

A question for the more experienced. Can you reuse a rootstock by making a fresh cut after a grafting attempt fails?

This is turning out to be far more difficult than I thought it would be.
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Old February 5, 2013   #48
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You can retry the rootstock if the first scion fails, But don't wait too long to decide! If you graft above the cotyledon you would have the option of leaving them on so the rootstock would be livelier.
Are you using expensive rootstock?
None of this really goes according to plan. You can graft way up hi On the rootstock. I had the same problem. If it works you can bury it deeper when you pot them up.

Here is a better boy rootstock with a cherokee purple scion on the left and a new Brandywine scion on the right. The rootstock was way way ahead of the scions and I was getting discouraged because eveyday brought them further apart in growth. The cherokee purple was cut nearly at soil level and the betterboy was cut way up in the foliage.

The other pic is one of the few "successful" grafts from before I got the silicone clips. It wasnt lined up very well and has never grown out of the kink in the graft. I hope it does OK in the garden.
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File Type: jpg CP_on_BB.jpg (309.0 KB, 65 views)

Last edited by Stvrob; February 5, 2013 at 10:37 AM. Reason: add a pic
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Old February 5, 2013   #49
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I'm not using expensive rootstock. Using Big Beef, Floralina, Ball's Beefsteak, Tasti-Lee and seed from a weird variant or cross of Indian Stripe that I have been trialing for two years. I am using Floralina and Tasti-Lee because they have resistance to three races of fusarium. Ball's and Big Beef are resistant and have been fairly successful withstanding the fusarium in my garden. If this experiment in grafting is half way successful then I will be looking at getting some Amelia seed in bulk. It is a very resistant tomato favored by
commercial growers in this area. I don't care for the taste but it is definitely hardy enough
for rootstock. I see where I can get the seed for 15 cent apiece on Ebay if buying at least 100 seed. That is a far cry from the 30 to 50 cent most places want for rootstock tomatoes.
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Old February 5, 2013   #50
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Stvrob, just a suggestion, but you might consider using either a very thin bamboo pole or even a thick bamboo barbecue skewer as a brace for your grafted ones before planting them in the garden. I do that with mine for plant-out, using some of that foam-covered wire plant tie looped once around the plant and then twisted (carefully) around the pole. Just a short length will do--offers a bit more protection against wind and rough handling at transplant time. Once the stems bulk up and the graft heals entirely, you can (and should) remove the wire. A light flexible tie would work too; the wire is just easier for me to place.
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Old February 6, 2013   #51
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http://www4.ncsu.edu/~clrivard/TubeG...gTechnique.pdf

I'm not sure if this link has already been posted to this site, but I'll do so here to be sure. I found this a useful read, particularly with statements like the following, which gave me a target for temp/humidity in the healing chamber:
"Make sure humidity, light, and temperature
levels inside the chamber are constant before beginning
the grafting procedure so that the grafts
will be placed into a well-functioning chamber.
As noted above, the relative humidity level
should be high—between 80 and 95 percent,
and the temperature should be a constant 70 to
80oF. Use black plastic to block all available sunlight
from entering the chamber until the leaves
of the newly grafted transplants attain normal
turgor levels—until they no longer show signs
of moisture stress.and the temperature should be a constant 70 to
80oF. Use black plastic to block all available sunlight
from entering the chamber until the leaves
of the newly grafted transplants attain normal
turgor levels—until they no longer show signs
of moisture stress."

BTW, last night I grafted my first three seedlings (Wes, Cherokee Purple, and Costoluto Gen.)

Good luck.
-naysen
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Old February 6, 2013   #52
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Thanks for posting that Willus. I wish I had seen it somewhat earlier in fact.
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Old February 7, 2013   #53
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My healing chamber is a plastic box from Walmart made with clear plastic. I may have messed up but I didn't completely block out light. The box is on my covered and plastic wrapped porch against the house wall so it is not near any bright light. Since some of my grafts were tilting rather badly I tried just wrapping the sides with a white thin beach towel and leaving the top available for a bit of indirect light. So far almost all of the transplants are standing upright. This is just the beginning of the 3rd day since the grafting and I am thinking of removing the lid. We are having light rain that is supposed to be off and on today and the humidity is 100% so there should be no shock by removing the lid. I thought I would leave the towel around the box to prevent any leaning towards the light.
The temps on the porch have varied from about 50 degrees up to about 80 and I have little control over that.
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Old February 7, 2013   #54
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B54, I have never placed mine in complete darkness. I just set them on the floor in the greenhouse where they get low light during the day and they have done fine so I bet yours are ok. I don't control the temperature either and I know I have had success in similar temperatures to what you are describing. That is great they look good on the 3 rd day.

Naysen, thanks for the great article. I was going to leave mine in the green house but after reading that I think I will place some bins in the dining room where the temperature is a little warmer - 60 to 70 degrees. It is still getting pretty cold at nights here. I may also try one bin in complete darkness and the others in low light and see if there is any difference.

I started my rootstock on Sunday (maxifort, Beauafort and Multifort) and by Wed morning I had 35 Multifort seedlings (out of about 40 seed) so I started a large batch of scion yesterday.

Marla
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Old February 7, 2013   #55
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Hi Marla, glad you enjoyed the article. I've got my hospital in a temp controlled closet with oil-heater. I see a range of 75-83F and 89-93-humidity. I'm going to try and open the lid once then later twice a day to replenish the CO2 (as the article suggested). I've got the hospital completely covered by an opaque sheet right now. I think I'll let some light in from the LED system at day 2 and slowly increase through day 4/5 at which point I'll start weening them off the hospital.

Did you note the bits about best time of day to graft, watering regiment pre-graft? There were a lot of gems in that article for the anal types. I just hope they're proscribing valid directions.
-naysen
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Old February 7, 2013   #56
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Naysen, I think they are most likely very good and valid directions. Like a lot of things in life there is probably some leeway with the instructions. I would guess for a farmer grafting 100's of plants they need to follow more strict guidelines. I have had good results despite different light and temperature conditions but I may be losing more than a farmer could afford to lose. I also will have to do the grafting when I have the time which is usually during the middle of the day although if it were summer i think i would follow the instruction for early or late in the day. I will continue to mist since it is probably not as much of a problem with fewer plants - I can make sure the foliage isn't drenched, more the sides of the bin. I do keep the humidity high. I lose plants if I decrease it too fast so I don't think there is much wiggle room on the humidity requirement. I will try some in the dark this year to compare to low light. I will report back. I do think it is a really nice article and will recommend it to friends and family that want to graft so thanks.
Marla
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Old February 8, 2013   #57
efisakov
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Naysen, thank you for that link on grafting. At first, I dismissed the idea of grafting tomatoes, too much trouble for such a short life. My grandma used to graft trees, but tomatoes...
I did change my mind about it last year when few of my tomatoes suffered from diseases and bugs.
I grow organically. Now I am planning on experimenting with grafting.

Maria and Stvrob, thanks for sharing your experience with us. It is encouraging.

I was looking for the right but not creasy expensive rootstock, got to this website:
http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.corne...matoTable.html

Good luck all. Let the green thumb be with you.
Ella
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Old February 8, 2013   #58
Stvrob
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Thanks Ella.
I wouldn't be grafting any tomatoes if I thought of it as trouble. I just think its alot of fun, I like having a project to work on. But now I have so many grafted seedling I don't have room to plant them all!
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Old February 8, 2013   #59
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stvrob View Post
Thanks Ella.
I wouldn't be grafting any tomatoes if I thought of it as trouble. I just think its alot of fun, I like having a project to work on. But now I have so many grafted seedling I don't have room to plant them all!
How many have you grafted? What has been your success rate?
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Old February 8, 2013   #60
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I have used RST-4-105-T rootstock and they seemed to match up nicely with my scion heirlooms. I grafted with brandywine, mortgage lifter, abe lincoln, amy's apricot cherry, and german johnson. However I have only been doing 15 at a time. I use heat mats and colder temperatures to either speed growth or slow growth.
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