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This episode I have a really helpful conversation with WSU Veggie Extension Specialist Carol Miles about grafting tomatoes, eggplants, and other veggies. We cover definitions, the reasons for doing it, and a few techniques. Thanks to Carol for making the time, and for providing links to her very useful publications on the subject, which you’ll find if you scroll down on the page the link sends you to.
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Thanks, Jordan. Interesting. What I previously read about tomato grafting convinced me it was only useful if you knew which soil-borne disease(s) you were trying to protect from so you could choose the appropriate root stock. I rejected the idea for myself because I rotate my crops and don’t know of any soil-borne diseases in my soils. But this suggests experimenting with putting a desireable fruit type onto a more vigorous root stock. Humm… Reminds me of dwarfing root stock for fruit trees, except the goal is to increase, rather than decrease, the vigor.
From your website, I got to http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/FS052E/FS052E.pdf which discusses different methods of grafting. Despite the disadvantages of possible confusion and more time per graft (I won’t be doing many), I think “side grafting” is the most promising technique for me because I have trouble controlling humidity and always have high winds when it is time to plant tomatoes into the garden. Also, I won’t need to worry about grafting clips and the stem size is less critical.
I grow Fox Cherry every year despite the fact that we don’t especially like cherry tomatoes because it always produces well on vigorous vines even when everything else fails. Thus, Fox seems like a good root stock to try. I might try a few of my less reliable heirlooms on fox root stock and see if they do any better.
Does anyone know if an indeterminant root stock will change a determinant scion into indeterminant? Will it affect its tendancy to stop setting fruit then weather turns hot? Or do I need to experiment to learn these answers?