Triple Variety Tomato Graft Experiment

[charley]

Thanks thats all i needed to know.im jumping in to mushrooms with both feet.i already have everything i need to get started. you the man

[aclum]

Hi Delerium!

Great to see you posting again. Everything looks beautiful as usual. And you've sure got the mushroom thing down. I see morels!! Are those home grown or some you collected?

Jiana sure has grown since you started posting here. She could be a spokesperson/model for some Mushroom or home grown vegetable group.

Getting off to a very slow start in the garden this year but hope to have some tomatoes in the ground before too much longer.

Keep us all posted on things ....... I may just have to give mushrooms another shot this year (if I can ever manage to get organized enough ). Your mushrooms look so delicious it makes me hungry .

Anne

[Delerium]

Anne - shhh.. this is all hush hush.. secret stuff..

[charley]

Wow that is so cool. What's next truffles

[aclum]

Oh, oh, D!

Hope I didn't spill the beans . Mum's the word .

Anne

[Delerium]

A few garden pics. Tomatoes are flowering. All the peppers are inoculated with Morels. I have found some pretty nice sclerotia while planting a few of them in the ground. Cabbages turned out pretty nice this year.

[BigVanVader]

Beautiful as always Delerium. You my dear/sir (not sure?) make it look easy. I can't wait till my little princess can help out with the garden. She is already showing an interest in Sungold it seems.

[Delerium]

Adorable BigVanvader! Before you know it she will be planting with you. Kids sure grow up fast. This year for the first time Jiana sold close to 300 tomato plants and made some nice piggy bank money. She was sold out within days. I was shocked she was thrilled lol.

Impressive greenhouse setup BigVan looks like you have a serious tomato growing operation. I'm guessing its for market? Jiana also requested some Cherry tomatoes this year so we decided to plant some of Fred Hempels highly recommended varieties (Blush & some black cherry with stripes i can't seem to remember the name). Only two plants. She already eats all the peas from the garden so I see a similar pattern once we have some cherry tomatoes.

Pic - Han solo caught smuggling rathtars on the Millenium Falcon. (That's Lionsmane fruiting in the little container). I might start growing some Lionsmane they do taste pretty yummy.

[BigVanVader]

Thanks D! Yes I am growing them for market, friends, and family. It seems to become more of a business and less of a hobby every year, but I am passionate about it and it's exciting to make money from something you would do regardless. I congratulate Jiana on cashing in! Very wise to teach her about business at such a young age, and we all know cute sells

Btw, Fred's cherries were great for me last year, so I think you and Jiana will enjoy. Maybe one day I will have time to start trying mushroom growing but for now my hands are full. Until then I will live vicariously through you and your pics. Especially when they involve Star Wars

[BigVanVader]

Ok so I was just reading back through this because I have some spare Big Beef that I would like to practice grafting on. You don't have to reveal any secrets or anything but I was wondering if you could maybe sum up a best practices sorta thing for a beginner like me? I have DE ready and I want to try just straight grafting heirloom to Big beef. I have a few questions.

1. Best place to get clips?

2. Do I need a humidity chamber for straight grafting?

3. Should I do petiole grafts to the Big Beef instead of regular main stem grafting? Which is easier for a lazy large fingered newbie?

4. Did you notice any increased vigor when you did the Dwarf Mr. Snow onto disease resistant root stock? Any change in production?

5. Do the triple no roots plants show any difference in vigor, as in do they seem stronger with 3 root systems? Or do the plants perform the same as they would separately?

6. I think that is enough for now, I wish I could sit down with you, have a coffee, and talk gardening for a few hours...or days lol

[Delerium]

Originally Posted by BigVanVader

Ok so I was just reading back through this because I have some spare Big Beef that I would like to practice grafting on. You don't have to reveal any secrets or anything but I was wondering if you could maybe sum up a best practices sorta thing for a beginner like me? I have DE ready and I want to try just straight grafting heirloom to Big beef. I have a few questions.

1. Best place to get clips?

- Got mine from Johnny seeds (dual size clips)

2. Do I need a humidity chamber for straight grafting?

- I used two clear totes. One for initial grafting with high humidity 2nd tote is for recovered plants (weaning them off the high humidity)

3. Should I do petiole grafts to the Big Beef instead of regular main stem grafting? Which is easier for a lazy large fingered newbie?

Petiole grafts are more easier to manage if your doing multi variety grafting and you want to keep each variety single stemmed. If its just for disease resistance and production then top grafting is the way to go.

4. Did you notice any increased vigor when you did the Dwarf Mr. Snow onto disease resistant root stock? Any change in production?

Yes but it actually kept its Dwarf size. It did sucker out quite crazy.

5. Do the triple no roots plants show any difference in vigor, as in do they seem stronger with 3 root systems? Or do the plants perform the same as they would separately?

They did quite well for me. I had no control to compare it with. Production was very good.

6. I think that is enough for now, I wish I could sit down with you, have a coffee, and talk gardening for a few hours...or days lol

Here is the basic guidelines / How-to instructions from 2 years ago. Good Luck

1) Get a 6-9 cell tray fill it with DE *Large Granular Kind* (pre soak it with dilute fertilizer of your choice) The Brand I use is, Molton 8834 (25 lb bag for 6 dollars at Autozone)
2) Take your scion and root stock (get rid of the roots)
3) Dunk both the newly cut scions and root stocks in a small cup of water (Have 2 cups so you won't mix up the rootstock with scions)
4) Leave it in the cups for 5 mins to 10 mins to hydrate both scion and root stock
5) Do 1 clean cut of both scion and rootstock parallel to each other in a 45 degree angle cut and add clear grafting clip. Make sure the graft union has full contact. Look through the clear grafting clip with a flash light to make sure that there is no gap between scion and rootstock.
6) Now take a tinker toy stick (or pencil) and punch holes in your DE cells so you can place the newly made grafts.
7) No need bottom water tray as the DE is pre-soaked and should stay at the perfect moisture levels while its trying to root. Get your clear tote container spray the sides and the lid and place all your grafts inside. DO NOT mist grafts (Actually you can mist the grafts the first time you put them in the humidity chamber). After that Not needed - just mist the sides of the clear tote when dry.
8) available indoor light (i don't do total darkness) no humidifiers. Let your grafts sit for 3-4 days. Your indicator to mist the sides of the container if its dry ONLY. if its not dry you can see moisture droplets do not mist the inside of the clear tote.
9) Within 4-5 days you can leave the top of your container partially open. If there is any sign of the grafts getting droopy (mist the sides again) or cut the leaves that are adding stress to the plant and let it sit for another day. Minimum foliage is best for quick recovery.
10) Then start weening the plants to fresh air for a few more days indoors and if they don't wilt most likely the no root grafts now have roots and you can harden your plants slowly outdoors in outdoor conditions in the shade in a dark tote. Once the grafts look decent size.. no need to pot up.. plant away.
11) Room Temp 70F

[BigVanVader]

Awesome, thanks so much! This thread is a goldmine of information.
I ordered these clips off Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Grafting-Silic...ilpage_o01_s00 I hope those will work? I am going to try to start grafting next week. Most likely will just start with some top grafting and see how that goes. I have several hybrid varieties this year to practice with.

[Delerium]

Just doing a quick photo update for the year. Tomatoes are setting nicely. Been clearing out some cole crop beds for new plants. Hope you all are busy with your gardens.

[efisakov]

Great pictures of your diversified garden and best helper. She really enjoys all the fresh produce you are growing. Thanks for sharing, Delerium.

[Delerium]

Originally Posted by efisakov

Great pictures of your diversified garden and best helper. She really enjoys all the fresh produce you are growing. Thanks for sharing, Delerium.

Thanks Ella! Can't wait for the first ripe tomato. Cleared a bed and planted some watermelons - seeds collected during last years Heirloom expo. Just for fun all of them are inoculated with Morel mycelium. We are always experimenting . Got some corn to plant today.