Tomato Grafting Demystified (and Why Anyone Can Do It)

[@tarjei99]

For us cheapscates, it is nice to know that the root plant tops can be put into water for rooting and have twice the plants.

[@anthonyperron6741]

What I plan to do this year is to grow out a few commercial rootstock plants and use them as "mothers" to produce suckers to use as rootstock for 60 heirloom seedling scions.

[@nathandroblyn1129]

Excellent introduction to grafting tomatoes (I honestly didn’t know that was a thing)!! You didn’t mention when to remove the clips or what you look for that says it’s time to do so.

[@notillgrowers]

First, thank you! Second, right I forgot to mention the clips. Most people just let them pop off when they're ready and pick them up. No need to remove them early, really. For us, we planted with the clips still on (we like to plant small tomato plants for better root establishment) but will remove them as soon as they start to get bigger or we start to see some clips falling off. Just to be on the safe side

[@leonarddiiorio4337]

Nicely shown. I have been grafting for 10 years. Latest studies indicate that absolute darkness does nothing but delay your plants healing. I tried this change this year and sure enough, one day in absolute darkness and then four days in subdued lighting and I could reduce my humidity much faster. I water everything well 24 hours before grafting and don't water again till the union is healed. Studies also tend to (sometimes) show taste changes in grafted slicers vs regularly grown. Working hypothesis is that the superior rootstock drives more water into the fruit thereby diluting the flavor. I put my Hawaiian pineapple and Great white heirlooms up against non grafted and sure enough there was a noticeable difference but only if they were directly compared to one another. I've been experimenting with hormones applied at the union site in order to improve my success rate. I found a dip in dilute kelp extract pulled my failure rate from 16 to 9 percent. I have no clue why. If I get much yield increase I've not noticed but I've not done a direct comparison. However, the reason I started was because my soil is crawling with diseases and I wanted heirlooms. Grafting and serenade soil treatment has the plants yield till frost. I'm curious as to why so many commenters are so put off by this. As you said, grafting is not new and the Japanese have been top grafting for many years, in fact I believe top grafting is sometimes called "Japanese grafting". Good stuff all around.

[@francus7227]

This poster doesn't reply. You seem just as knowledgeable and much more likely to respond... So.... I will NOT be grafting. I am in Thailand. Finding reliable root stock is unlikely and tedious. But.... I would be interested in cloning. I have some heirloom determinate seed that were developed by the University of Florida to be humidity and high rainfall tolerant. Question/s: Will clones of a determinate tomato plant reach the full size as that of the parent plant? Or will the clone stop growing once it reaches the determined size that particular limb the cutting was taken from was predetermined to grow to? Thanks. Otherwise... I'll just keep growing from seeds and collecting seeds from fruits to grow future crops.

[@leonarddiiorio4337]

Clones will work just fine​@@francus7227

[@resourcefulgirl]

Interesting video. I'm not there yet but will experiment with this once I'm more established. I'm only about 4 months into living on the new homestead. Goodbye suburbs and hello country living. I'm absolutely loving it so far!

[@lisamcdonald1415]

Love Sunday mornings for this reason. Another great video. Not going down this rabbit hole for about another couple seasons yet, want to master growing the tomatoes before investing the time, but always love learning new skills. Thanks again Jesse

[@3crowsfarm16]

Oooh! Dropping a tray of seedlings super suxx!

[@notillgrowers]

Awe thank you 🙌 and yes, SUPER sucks. Luckily I had grafted enough to allow for some boneheadery

[@littlenugs9942]

Looks extremely time consuming. I've personally grafted my medical can plants with good success, but culled it from the garden before flowering started. Now I want to experiment with hearing that it can I crease yeild. Love your show and watch every video! Great job guys!

[@dogslobbergardens-hv2wf]

I don't really get the point. I'm pretty close to these folks in almost exactly the same conditions, and there are already plenty of varieties that do fantastic here without the added steps, cost, space etc of starting and grafting extra tomato seedlings. Now if I suddenly had an infection of some kind in the soil... maybe then I'd have to get into it. But there are other ways to deal with all sorts of soil diseases, which are probably going to have to be dealt with anyway, sooo... Let's just say I remain unconvinced at this point.

[@PlantObsessed]

Cool. Good stuff. I had started to see the grafted tomatoes for sale. 15$ for a tomato plant seemed a bit nuts. Might make more sense/ cents for southern farmers with high pest pressure.

[@dogslobbergardens-hv2wf]

Meh. I'm in the same area as the host and I can already find plenty of varieties that do great without all the extra steps. If you REALLY need the very best pest and disease resistance, just start looking into newer hybrids. The seeds aren't *that* expensive, especially compared to the labor and space needed to start twice as many and then graft them together.

[@waynebusse6376]

Been making a living growing high tunnel tomatoes for 28 years and have been grafting for five years. I only graft my red slicers as they are the "BIG" money makers. Cherries and grapes are good sellers but are labor intensive and grow like weeds so grafting them on vigorous root stock just makes more work pruning them. My only red slicer I grow is Big Beef and Big Beef plus after trying dozens of other varieties over the years. Three of my tunnels have had back to back tomatoes for over 25 years and the tomatoes are producing better each year as I till in a windrow of grass clippings each spring to add beneficial fungi and nutrients. I also feed through the four drip lines on each bed. I find the biggest gain from grafting comes late in the season when fruit on un-grafted plants tend to size down as fusarium builds up even in the resistant Big Beef. I live across the river from you in Indiana. This year I grafted 725 Big Beef Plus for my high tunnels.

[@joanies6778]

That was interesting. I enjoy learning new things.

[@paxtianodirtfrog8947]

I'm proud of you for not swearing when you dropped the tray because I'm sure you didn't off camera either.

[@notillgrowers]

Took everything I had...

[@VictoriousGardenosaurus]

I cheaped out and bought standard top soil for my garden, so I could obtain twice the volume of soil over a garden mix. I've got a few yards of compostin a pile, and a few mushroom buckets, that will get mixed in this fall. In the meantime, I've been brewing an extract and watering this into the heavy soil twice a week. I poked some holes around the plants so liquid can easily reach the roots. . Wish me luck!

[@alexandermuravez7596]

I can't wait for the yield comparison video!

[@xaviercruz4763]

Did he do it?

[@kentuckianabf]

Just met Mike (halfacrefarm) from Dallas, Texas that talked to you about a lettuce bacteria... The first part of this video reminded me of this.

[@notillgrowers]

Oh right - I hope his lettuce improved!

[@hrnature5501]

Hello brother Your planting method is amazing.👍👍👍

[@waltnakonechny4548]

Not sure if you did this but try orienting the clips so the pressure at the union site is perpendicular to the face of the cuts rather than parallel. That tightens the junction between scion and rootstock making it more likely to callus over. This greatly improves alignment of each cambium.

[@heidiopalka2445]

I have been growing Heidi and Opalka paste tomatoes for years, both heirlooms, very successfully. Since my name is Heidi Opalka I would love to graft the two together but for a home gardener the investment is too big but your video was very interesting

[@TheEmbrio]

Interesting. Will come back for updates !

[@Pinkhams363]

I absolutely love the videos, I'm fairly certain I have 50+ watched since finding you guys maybe a month ago. When are the yellow hats coming back in stock? Your content has me learning as much as I can as often as I can (and the wife and kids often times as well). Thanks for all you do!

[@stingray43550]

this is so so cool :) I learned grafting at university and this video was the perfect balance of expectation vs. reality I am looking forward to following this religiously… a fun fact I’ll put out there is you may consider grafting eggplant scion onto tomato rootstock for diseases resistance and/or vigor if you’d like to experiment and vice versa, when I first learned this was an option I about leaped out of my socks but I still haven’t ventured into the world of grafting after leaving school, thank you for the consistent content it’s both entertaining and informative and you do such a good job making a fun subject one-hundred times more exciting… all the best!!!

[@donnyjay9046]

Touched base on grafting 3yrs ago (Tomato). And my conclusion is that like knitting, calligraphy, et al, is a process where you have to get stuck in and perfect the process through hands on experience. Taking tons of notes also helps, if your not in ideal conditions.

[@ethankolodny8654]

If youre worried about disease, you can add h202 to your misting water. Hydroponics stores have a 29% hydrogenperoxide, rather than the 3% you get at the pharmacy. Alternatively you can ad baking soda or greencure to chance the mist water ph to make it inhospitable to fungal infections.

[@scottwhite4645]

Thanks! ..I subscribed to the channel as well, guess I’m now “awesome” too! If you can share, what led you to choosing “cherry” varieties ? Thank you!

[@notillgrowers]

That was all about the market for us--heirlooms and large slicers were everywhere and we found them hard to sell. Cherries were easy because most other farmers didn't bother.

[@Jacques.Bodaire]

I'm trialing the DRO141TX stock from Johnny's. I definitely wish I had started the stock about 7-10 days later than my scions. Not only did DRO germ much faster but was much more vigorous. I grew about 50% more scions than stock so I could pick and choose which to graft, but it was still rough. I found that my cherry and grape varieties had the worst unions. I don't have disease issues, but I have issues competing with the other established farms in my area for first to market. I'm actually grafting some determinates for use in a tunnel in the hope that I can push them twice as hard as an indeterminate and be first or at least concurrent to market with the other farms and get that sweet early tomato rush. The idea is the root vigor enhances the traditional earliest of determinate varieties. Also, because my root-to-scion sizing was not great I tried to follow some traditional tree grafting techniques for size mismatching. A graft will still take if the cambium layers of both the stock and scion overlap, allowing circulation to take place. I'm hoping that will be my saving grace but I kept all my extra scions just in case this year's grafting ends up being a fail. Curious to see the results!

[@xaviercruz4763]

Jacques thanks. So what is it that the rootstock does to the top of your Toms? How did everything go?

[@xaviercruz4763]

So based on what u saw about grafting what’s the best to do in a fruit tree?

[@C3Voyage]

A great video. Well made and informative.

[@AJWGBFX]

I’ve had a couple of goes at grafting aubergines (eggplants) with mixed success (lack of time/effort/facilities). Now buy commercially reared grafted plugs. I’d say I get at least twice the harvest compared to non grafted of the same variety. I put them on strings and side shoot like tomatoes, letting two stems grow up. I think your losses are small and I’m sure your efforts will be rewarded.

[@landscapephotograffer]

Very informative. We are first time doing this and our labors do 120/hr depending on size. As it grows very fast we are doing 80/hr now lol

[@evelyngorfram9306]

Man! Dropping that tray just to show us the variability & realities of a working farm took some real commitment. I doff my No Till cap to you. 🤣

[@sethl3702]

Ouch! I had 3 trays of brassicas knocked off a rack ths year. Rescued most of them but it took some time.

[@daigledj]

I'd be more interested in a tailored landrace experiment. Planting several different varieties with desired traits (blight resistant but poor yield, great yield but poor disease resistance, etc.). Seeing what you could come up with that would perform best for your conditions and goals.

[@dogslobbergardens-hv2wf]

That's kind of my goal for almost everything I grow. Rather than constantly chasing new varieties, taking a few seasons to just find what works here, and select and/or cross the best of them. Grafting tomatoes is fascinating, but I just can't see it being worth the extra work to get some specific variety growing in a place it doesn't want to be. Buyers here really don't care about specific varieties. They just want a mater to be fresh, ripened on the vine and not sprayed with poison.

[@FantailValleyHomestead]

oh noooooooo bummer eh! Thanks for the video though, as always it was fun to watch and great to learn new skills. Keen to see how this turns out later in the season.

[@notillgrowers]

Yeah...🤦 luckily we still had plenty for what we needed, just made the experiment a little more wonky.

[@uncommoncents2152]

Cloning plants is always fun as well

[@kentitus7550]

So you dropped the tray. They say practice makes perfect. Keep it up and you will soon be an expert.

[@NewDimension7]

Tomato Grafting .. Yeay really nice ideas.

[@hannahkayee831]

New to your channel (first video I've seen of yours) how interesting I knew nothing of this.

[@nextchancenow7153]

I’m a gardener, not a mad scientist Jesse! At least, not yet, but this is a good start 😂

[@garrettscott4094]

Maybe my wife is a grafted tomato. She too likes a dark, warm, humid environment. This lady would bring a blanket to the beach

[@SommaRob]

I just finished day 3 after side graft. All is looking well. Small sample size at first try but 200% success. Now to let them grow for a bit (I guess) show some roots from the bottom of the new pot, then make the first cut in the scion stock (I guess) - I believe in the process and in my small test garden, I’ll grow one each, in grafted and several grafted for each variety, Brandwine, Sakura, San Marzano.

[@rajaeamer]

What is the temperature need for in the chamber

[@t4cchi]

Most of that equipment is un-necessary if you are really on a budget. Each one will likely improve results and confidence; but I successfully graft tomatoes with a standard razor blade, cleaned with alcohol, the Johnnys clips and no humidity dome even. I only loose about 10%. It is surprisingly easy, just intimidating.

[@teatimetraveller]

Really great info. I ve always thought tomatoes were already too much work so avoided grafting, but then never had problems with soil borne disease. Hope they work out well for you and keep us posted on yields. Are you comparing them with non grafted of same varieties?

[@aileensmith3062]

Quite sure that this is something that we will never attempt. As we have a small "family" garden and not interested in commercial sales and so forth. Then, as always, it is good to learn things and see how science is progressing in the favor of agriculture. Thinking that rather than supporting the mega giants of Budget and Enterprise could we not all support "Rent a Tomato Graft"?

[@jeas4980]

Well this was just fascinating! I'm curious (from a home grower perspective) if this maybe a technique useful for repairs or consolidation. Specifically, I have a Notorious GSD that rips through my garden space and snaps stems. I've lost more than one well developed pepper plant due to his keen lizard hunting focus. I'm curious now if I might be more successful with grafting than I have been in the past with splinting. Also, last year I had a 30 ft bed of various Beefsteak heirloom varieties... one plant reached 8 feet woven up a trellis but produced only 2 fruits. Would I have been able to side graft suckers from more productive varieties onto this vigorous but nearly sterile vine??? Absolutely brilliant topic to research! Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

[@daigledj]

When my lizard hunter breaks a tomato stalk I just take the stalk and stick it in the ground. 9/10 times it roots and grows.

[@notillgrowers]

Ah, well you would have to be able to time it really well to make sure the stems are the same size as the rootstock and then take both to a dark, humid area. I would guess that sticking them back in the ground as Dale suggests here might be the better option.

[@jeas4980]

Thank you both!

[@Doktracy]

Maybe it’s because I am a mad scientist but even though I’m just a home gardener I’ve been getting ready to start doing this for awhile. Now that I’m starting to do some tunnel growing I plan to graft my tunnel tomatoes next year.

[@aanassazool]

is that a normal water? 6:30

[@TheGardenerNorth]

LOL! The ending had me laughing. Early on, I was using my garage for my plant starts, and had several rolling racks, probably about 20 flats of plant starts, that I had moved closer to the garage door, I'd inadvertently opened the garage door with the garage door opener and knocked over the plant racks. I probably saved about 20% of them that still had their labels in the pots. As the saying goes $hit happens, just try not to repeat it.

[@kenphieudu]

i love this video

[@alexandrevaliquette3883]

How would you select the rootstock variety?

[@leonarddiiorio4337]

Depends on what kind of scion you intend to use. I do slicers only and prefer maxifort. Estimino is usually for smaller fruiting tomatoes. The issue is one of growth characteristics that the root stock needs to support. There are charts out there.

[@harlowecustommicrogreens]

Did you do the follow up on this?

[@denisekelley2292]

This was really interesting to see and learn about. I just have a small family backyard garden and will never graft tomatoes. You gave good info and are always fun to watch. I appreciate your simple easy to understand teaching. For someone who doesn't like tomatoes (I grow them for the fam who like them) is there a variety or two that are really good that one who doesn't like tomatoes may like? I really want to like them, just need the right variety.

[@notillgrowers]

Oh gosh, so many! I mean Sungolds are the classic cherry and a well-grown Cherokee purple is always worth it.

[@glassbackdiy3949]

cool, will be interesting to see the results compared to controls...we do have controls right? XD I remember the big thing 20yrs ago was PRD but it never seem to hear of it these days

[@elizabethr2908]

If I graft an heirloom tomato to a highly productive, disease resistant Dwarf tomato would it work? Love your content! I hit the notification bell 🔔 ❤

[@JohnDoe-id9hi]

Using warm water spray seems to help.

[@funnywolffarm]

Its an interesting thing numerically. If you don't have an issue yet, its likely not worthwhile; if you induce an issue over time, maybe so. Also financially, small bits such as the scion 'tray' soil and space investment going back into the business with basically zero waste after a short time could be considered. Fun stuff overall. Diseases suck, tech is great when applied well, distribution of knowledge is always good , except when it is not, having options.. pretty much always good. Thanks for the video.

[@jamesrobinson8907]

just thinking??? could you use a green light instead of complete darkness??

[@notillgrowers]

Good question--not sure! I didn't see anything like that in the studies but that doesn't mean anything one way or another.

[@dantolson1697]

Just wondering but this *was* released on April 1st, right ? ? Makes me wonder……

[@pizzaguy3645]

You missed something. Do you remove the clips at some point? When? How?

[@notillgrowers]

Good question! We didn't remove them at planting. Folks say they usually just pop off, but we will probably remove them (if they are not already popped off) at trellising.

[@testerstripesoffcuts6243]

@@notillgrowers They usually fall off after a while but sometimes need to be taken off at time of transplanting. I used to do grafting for a small family owned farm. We would use regular razor blades dipped in isopropyl alcohol and left one leaf on the rootstock to reduce the shock of grafting.

[@adenatteyehsougal5897]

please let me know; the name of the rootstock tomatoes resistant to salt! I will be happy to try it

[@notillgrowers]

Here is one study on grafting for salt tolerance that lists a few of the rootstocks they trialed (Maxifort, Cuore di Bue, and Arnold are a few). I have not looked too deep at the methodology on this particular study, but it may be a helpful starting point? www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/10/2/263

[@dimpletoadfoot8631]

In Wartime Kitchen and Gardens, the gardener steams the soil to kill off diseases and insect eggs. What do yiu think of doing something like this? He puts it in a water trough with hot coals underneath

[@TheEmbrio]

He is all for living soil so sterilizing i don’t think would be his method. He makes compost teas to INOCCULATE the soil...

[@notillgrowers]

obviously, I wouldn't blame someone in a wartime situation for having to do whatever they can to grow what they need to eat, but yeah we don't steam. We have the luxury of having the space to rotate crops widely instead.

[@fourdayhomestead2839]

Thank you for sharing.

[@BrianJonah88]

mullet lol! Jessie is such a good comedian

[@manolopapas]

Thank you

[@alexandrevaliquette3883]

17:19 That's the best part. 🤭

[@xaviercruz4763]

2:42 no cheese, meat, garbanzos in it, Jess?

[@nchestercountynews4955]

no link for "hello my name is" labels?

[@notillgrowers]

Oh I think we randomly found them on sale on some site one day and bought them as a joke.

[@jamesruan913]

Super thanks

[@50sorrowC]

I understand it but personally I think it is too much work. I'd rather find a tomato cultivar that works well for my garden rather than be grafting every spring! Thanks for the video.

[@poeticpursuits1332]

Once I develop my perfect potato I am going to graft them to tomatoes.

[@kaykay730]

how does this application work with GMO

[@notillgrowers]

Not sure. We can't grow GMO crops because we're certified organic and there are not GMO tomatoes on the market that I'm aware of.

[@chrisshepherd8708]

I do like grafting apple twigs to other trees.

[@ThatBritishHomestead]

i am always wondering why someone would graft tomatoes

[@adarshasepu]

are you taking interns ? this year ? how to contact ?

[@kannmann97]

My biggest issue with grafting is the difference of growth for the root stocks vs the scion when starting seeds. I know a little planning will help but its trickier than the actual grafting. We put them in bottom watering trays so the root stock stays well hydrated and keeps weeping nutrient rich liquid to the scion before healing. We then just put them under our seed starting tables with no germ chamber etc. humidity domes and germ chambers can cause a lot more advantageous rooting. So a mildly dry air environment works well for us since we keep the soil of rootstock soaked

[@okipratama5536]

Nice

[@WynterDragon]

I highly recommend Bootstrap Farmer trays and domes. I've had mine several years and I abuse them (the bottom trays often become chicken feeders) and they last, they also hold soil blocks nicely.

[@SimplisticFarms]

Oh man..🤦

[@GibClark]

👍👍👍👍

[@scottbaruth9041]

Dropping a tray yourself is much better than having a cat knock a tray off overnight. Most people won't be tempted to kill themselves...

[@TheOnlyKontrol]

Why would you put the tray in the cats way like that?

[@chrisshepherd8708]

Do you believe that heirlooms are weaker than hybrids...... is that what you're saying?

[@notillgrowers]

Hybrids are like the mutts of the plant world and benefit from "hybrid vigor". So yeah, in that way they are better and tend to have fewer disease issues.

[@josephlarsen]

ohhh man, i'd love to be able to throw sun golds on top of a dwarf rootstock so that i can get rid of all my big trellises.

[@jeshurunfarm]

Nooooo! Aaaah! Shit dude. Respect from Africa 🇿🇦

[@joshstansberry9103]

Good channel. Jay Cutler with a cigarette vibes

[@bearwill4737]

Awesome as usual, probating demotion for the drop, careful with the babies.

[@SommaRob]

Anybody have feedback on how large you can successfully graft - side or top - tomatoes and what to use as clips? Cellophane? Plastic clothes pins? Wrap with string over plastic? Thx!

[@leonarddiiorio4337]

Grafts tend to fail more often as the stem gets more and more woody. The orange colored spring clips are best for side grafts, they are bigger and better built than Johnny's clear ones. You can also use breathable lab tape but it's a pain when the stems are small. I grafted three different scions to the same root stock just to see how it looked having three heirlooms on the same vine. The stem has to be pretty large for that. It worked but it didn't yield well.

[@VoteThirdPartyorFourth]

great stuff

[@jeffschmucker1640]

Thanks!

[@notillgrowers]

Thank YOU! 🙌

[@jessicarichardson4681]

Thanks!

[@notillgrowers]

Thank YOU! 🙌