Grafted Tomato Plants?

Reading my new Territorial Seed Co Catalog I found a new product line, grafted tomato plants


Territorial Grafted Tomatoes


The paper catalog description (could not find it on the website) includes
"Vigorous Rootstock enables more effective uptake of water and nutrients, and increases plant's resistance to pests or disease and tolerance to temperature extremes and drought"

What do you think about this, particularly for PNW, as it often is very cool in the Spring and Summer

ps: These are not cheap. The on-line catalog lists the plants at $6.95 to $11.50 per plant

I'm looking for anything to increase my chances of a good tomato harvest here.

I saw that, do you plan to try one? I wonder what ol' Steve Solomon would say about it? How is is really different than an F1 since you cannot save seed? I'd be interested to see what you get for you $15 (In Wa it has to ship)

Did not even think about saving seeds, though with the heirloom varieties, seems you could save the seeds. Of course, the next year, you would not have the more "vigorous" rootstock.

I was intrigued by the idea of (quote from TSC's paper catalog) "even gardeners in challenging climates can enjoy AMPLE harvests of America's favorite garden crop" My heart kind of sped up when I heard ample harvest relating to tomatoes.

Heirloom tomatoes from my local markets are $2.50 to $5 per pound. If I could harvest at least 3 - 4 lbs, seems like it is not a bad deal if it works.

I think I may try one or two, probably single varieties, though they offer a double variety. With SFG, I am concerned about the spacing with trying to grow two varieties on one plant. I will have to call them (seems like they are not open on Sundays during this time of year) and make sure they will have the grafted ones for sale in their shop in Cottage Grove, OR. Since I go to that area at least once a month, I would not have shipping to consider.

Awesome..... can you photo-document? That would be kewl.

Very interesting! In poking about looking for info about the grafted tomato I found several interesting things of note.

Some chatter on another forum. There is a mention here about grafting tomato onto rootstock of eggplant and potato.

A research paper from NCSU from several years ago.

At this blog there is a video explaining how grafting is done.

This paper from 2010 is an interesting read discussing grafted tomato varieties and also red vs. black plastic mulch.

This link goes to a site from New Zealand where grafted tomatoes have been used for years.

I plan on lots of photos, because I am also changing up to Table Tops this Spring (from an old style amended soil SFG)

Area selected ? CHECK

Layout Designed? CHECK

Lumber for SFG frame? CHECK

4X4 inch posts for legs? CHECK

Specs for each box? CHECK

Hardware Cloth? CHECK

Weed Cloth? CHECK

Screws etc? CHECK

Mel's Mix ingredients? CHECK

Busy Husband? DAG NAB IT!
but he promises they will be done soon

Camprn, thanks for those informative links.

I am glad I checked each site as there was some different info provided in each. I was glad to see the information on red mulch included in the paper on grafted tomatoes.

I am thinking I will try two grafted tomatoes, and hopefully with red mulch and the more vigorous root stock on the Heirloom scions, the combination will help alleviate some of the problems we have here.

I know tomatoes, no matter the rootstock will still need a high number of GDDs, over which we have no control (and received too little for the last two years), but perhaps the red mulch, by reflecting the red spectrum of light onto the leaves, will also help the fruit mature a little faster.

The price is more than I usually spend on tomato plants, but I think I will try them, assuming I am able to pick a couple of them up at the Territorial Seed Co. store.

Furbalsmom wrote:I plan on lots of photos, because I am also changing up to Table Tops this Spring (from an old style amended soil SFG)

Area selected ? CHECK

Layout Designed? CHECK

Lumber for SFG frame? CHECK

4X4 inch posts for legs? CHECK

Specs for each box? CHECK

Hardware Cloth? CHECK

Weed Cloth? CHECK

Screws etc? CHECK

Mel's Mix ingredients? CHECK

Busy Husband? DAG NAB IT!
but he promises they will be done soon

(Let me know how that last one works out. I have one I'm trying to convince.)

My dad insisted that we girls learned to use basic hand tools...it's a nice thing, because my own lazy self is all I have to wait on to get my boxes built!

LOL La Fee.... I tell hubby that as long as he gets out of cleaning the toilet then I don't have to build anything for myself! He says that is fine.

I saw those grafted Toms and was thinking I might try one or two as well Furbalsmom...I wonder if we got the same ones we could compare results....which ones are you going to get. ? I wanted to try ONE of the 2 kind ones myself...just cause I think that is so cool. But I wouldn't have to.

When I was a kid my grandparents had a GINORMOUS tree in their yard that was a grafted 1/2 white nectarine and 1/2 plum tree. It was gorgeous and I have a lot of good childhood memories of that tree. Playing under it, eating it's fruit, watching grandpa chase the neighborhood kids away with a rake! LOL. He would have given anyone who asked as much fruit as they could carry...but these kids would climb in the tree and break off branches to get to the fruit and not ask. So every afternoon when school let out he stood guard over the tree with a rake.

Anyway the tree in an of itself was beautiful. It bloomed at two different times of the year and it was huge. So you had 1/2 a tree with beautiful fragrant blossoms and then fruit and then the other half would do the same thing. It was just really cool to see as a kid.

I'm planning to do plastic mulch for some of our tomatoes and in researching, I read that silver mulch actually works better than red. I thought about getting some of each and trying it, but the study I found said that silver was notably better. I wish I had bookmarked that study! It said silver, then red, then black, and I think it was from a university study in the south. I wouldn't use black mulch here in Virginia because I think it would heat the soil up too much during the blistering summer.

I saw the grafted tomatoes too and my husband asked if I wanted to try one or two I don't know if we will, though, because we have a wonderful local source for great tomato plants at our local farmer's market.

Obviously not the be-all-end-all of tomatos' ..... but I'm struggling with the concept/benefit here.

I don't see where any of the three historical benefits of grafting are applicable...

No "maturity benefit" (not reducing fruit production time), no optimization of breed/stock (not growing "good" varieties on "bad" varieties) and no cultivating/reproductive benefits .... tomatoes grow just fine if you plant the suckers with a little rooting powder.... why would I pay 5x the cost of a transplant, or 12x the cost of a seed plant, for the same (?) results I could have, in the same plant, by just growing the actual variety in the first place???


Help ...I'm obviously missing the concept here

They say..............The advantages of grafted tomatoes are ...

That the rootstock is more tolerant of heat or cool weather, of which we have an abundance in OR, as well as less susceptible to soil born diseases, early and late blight, blossom end rot, and increased water and nutrient take up. You can plant earlier/harvest longer

The scion (the plant grafted onto the rootstock) is from a more desirable plant , resulting in better quality crops and fruit production. Varieties we might not even try in our cool weather.

Though not all of the scions offered are OP, the ones I am considering are.

If you have not been able to produce tomatoes due to cool climate limitations, it sounds wonderful.

Oh, and don't let my zone fool you. It is only because of the moderate temps in the winter, that I have a high zone #, the normal high temps in the "heat" of the summer are only in the mid 60's to 70's. Rarely does it even hit 80 degrees.

I think I will try two, Brandywine and Japanese Black Trifele. Of course, the proof is at the end of the season. If it doesn't work, I will live. I am also going to try other tomatoes from seed.

Hmmm ... *curiosity wheels are spinning*

Keep us posted on how that goes

I'm just jazzed that someone is going to give it a go and report back.

Very interesting thread, can't wait to see some comparisons.

Don't forget that even if the scion is OP, saving seed won't get you the hardy root stock, so any offspring will be back to the possibly non-resistant scion.