I’ve about run out of limbs to graft on my fruit trees so it looks like tomatoes are next up. I started doing this late so I’m mostly practicing how to graft and I’m finding out that the after care is critical. I have a total of fourteen now. Some of these seemed to be standing upright but three were droopy looking. I saw where some of you put them in a high humidity location so I did the same and these three are looking good now. I’m looking forward to seeing your results so I can be better prepared next year.
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Things seem to be going better this year for me on the grafting front … here are my grafts at this point:
Note that I have some “backup” plants in there as well, the grafts are the ones with the clips. I grafted around 5 days ago and all but one have perked up again. Today I just grafted the two backup rootstocks, was saving them in case of failures.
Last year I may have had them too hot or cold, I had them in the greenhouse which swings wildly in temperatures this time of year. I am keeping them in the house in a warm spot now. Also I used a knife that was sharp like a razor blade, a 10 degree or so blade, and found I could make more diagonal cuts (longer ones) on my wedge grafts so the clips seem to be holding them better. When the wedges are too short the grafts can slip in the clips due to the slimy stuff in the stems which makes them prone to move. This year no slipping!
Anyway I would strongly recommend using either a razor blade or sharpening a knife to a 10 degree slope for tomato grafting, it makes a big difference on the soft stems. The regular grafting knife just doesn’t do it for me.
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I’m still not sure.
I up-potted them into 4 inch pots, 2 cells per pot. We’ll see if that helps. The roots were spread throughout the cell, but didn’t seem like they were root-bound.
I’ve dialed the light back and am going to slowly increase it over the coming days back to max. If they can survive the sun, they should be able to survive a 200 watt lamp.
For the fertilizer I’m using Sta-Green 18-18-21 crystals. I’m going to go once every two weeks at half strength. It’s possible I messed up the measurement early on and over fertilized, but there are so many variables I just can’t be sure.
Interestingly the rootstock are all doing much better than the named varieties. I suppose worst-case I’ll keep growing them to graft store-bought tomatoes onto them. Many of the leaves fall off with the slightest movement. I’m not sure if tomatoes repair leaf damage or just dump them and work on new leaves, but I figure it will take a few days to see results from the changes. Most of the named varieties have completely stalled out.
I’m also trying to get a better handle on the watering requirements. Even the 4" pots seem to be drying out faster than I expect. I’m going to up the watering from 40ml/pot to 60ml and see where that gets me. I’d like to get the watering stable at every other day, but we’ll see.
These are a month old now (from planting), and I don’t know how far along they should be at this point, but the growth rates have been varied and unstable. At least the peppers and melons are doing fine!
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Looking good
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I took my clips off yesterday on my main batch … around 10 days later. Not sure what the recommendation is but I could see on the sides that the grafts had healed over.
Bravo on your odds, that is great. All of mine are still going, one might not make it but the rest look like they will. But I don’t have that many, only six.
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With those silicon clips I never take them off. The plant grows and as the stem gets wider they just fall off. If they were plastic spring clips I think I’d probably remove them, but I’m always afraid of messing things up so I just wait.
Great results!
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I hope everyone’s grafted tomatoes are doing well. I’ve neglected mine by not transplanting them out of their cramped 72-cell tray, but those powerful rootstocks keep them growing and some are probably a foot tall growing in those tiny bits of soil. I’ll probably transplant some, particularly duplicates, into individual pots and keep them as backups, but most will probably go right into the ground Sunday.
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Incredible! My results have been largely abysmal.
The only thing I can think of is that the grow lamp, despite its output just isn’t enough to stimulate strong growth from tomatoes. I’m not sure. In regards to light, how are you growing your tomatoes from seedling to post-graft?
I have gotten one sungold and one unnamed Ohio variety to graft successfully, but their growth after the graft has been rather slow. That’s too tenuous successes for approximately a dozen grafts. Considering it’s my first attempt I’m not devastated by the results, but it annoys me that I’m having a bigger problem getting tomatoes to grow at all that I am grafting them.
I did attempt using larger pots for everything, but seeing the growth you’re achieving in 1-in cells, I can’t imagine that’s the problem I’m facing.
Mine also did really well, the best grafting experience I have had overall. One didn’t make it and I could see that the scion was not aligned well to the stock so no surprise on that.
The three things I did differently was I did longer diagonal cuts with my thinner-angle blade, I used grafting clips, and I kept them in a warmer spot while callousing.
@LordRatner my grafting experiences in the last couple of years was not to different to yours. My guess is the grafts just did not take well, it is not the lamp. This is based on grafts I did which did not work well. Once the grafts take well the plant should take off whether the lamp is optimal or not.
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Don’t get me wrong, my grafting is going poorly, but that I expected.
What I didn’t expect is for the growth of ungrafted tomatoes to be so tenuous. There’s got to be some element I’m missing, because I’m getting weak growth, lots of leaves falling off, and a general yellowishness. Variations in fertilizer use, lamp intensity, and watering amounts haven’t seemed to move the needle much. The only variable left is indoor growth being the problem. Maybe tomatoes just don’t get what they need from grow lamps?
Ah, I didn’t realize that your un-grafted plants were also growing poorly. If you don’t have enough light the plants should still grow OK, they will just be really leggy. So it makes me think you might have under- or over- or mis-fertilized them. I assume your lights are some kind of grow light, not just regular light bulbs? I use LED grow lights. Also the lights should be pretty close to the plants based on the instructions.
I use a fertilizer called Advanced Nutrients Bloom, Micro, Grow… it is designed for hydroponic marijuana growing and those weed growers really know their stuff! It is awesome, my plants (still indoors) are super duper happy now, with very deep green leaves.
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This one?
Could you walk me through your routine form indoor growing? When are you watering, and when are you fertilizing?
This lamp is what I’m using. At full power it puts a lot of light out, and the tomato soil dries out much quicker than at 50% power or less. So I adjust water to when the soil feels dry. But it’s an imprecise process…
Yes that fertilizer. I don’t know if it is necessarily any better but I get fantastic results with it.
Your grow light looks good. I assume you are running it in full power mode? Also I think the plants should be something like a foot away? Looking at your pictures above the tomatoes don’t look happy at all… not sure why.
I have a very simple growing regimen, when the pot has lost most of its weight (I pick it up to tell), I water it with all the water it will take. I always have this fertilizer in the water, it is designed for hydroponic growing as always being used. Pretty simple.
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Keep trying and it gets better. The good news is Big Beef is usually very productive and disease resistant on its own roots.
I suggest doing a few seedlings grows during the “off” season to dial in your system. For instance, if you start seedlings and they don’t get leggy, they’ve got enough light, but possibly too much. When I first went from fluorescents to LED strips, my newly emerged tomatoes were a bit twisted and often turning almost away from the light. It wasn’t enough to burn them, but someone told me to raise them up higher and that indeed made them a lot happier. You can just do test grows with seeds from a store tomato or something from a harvest this year so you don’t use expensive seed.
For fertilizer, I’m using Master Blend, which is also a fertilizer often used for hydroponics. I use it at 1/3 to 1/2 strength once a week or two as soon as the first real leaves shows, but I’m using a seed starting mix that doesn’t have any fertilizer in it. That way I know that I’m definitely giving them a very low dose from the beginning.
Good luck and you’ll get there.
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I’ll give it a shot. Are you watering from the top? Bottom? Got a picture of your setup? What pots are you using? I want to cover all reasonable variables.
Thanks!
I did get a Sungold and one unknown variety to graft successfully. I’d like to get a few more on this next attempt, especially a Big Beef.
Thanks, I’ll keep plucking away. It’s an interesting little puzzle, that’s for sure.
I’m not doing grafting, but what works great for my tomato starts is doing a few seeds in each small pot, but separating them and potting up to 1+ gallon pots when they are about this size (this is @Marta’s “Optimal” selection, which I’ll be trying in the greenhouse this year):
Here are a few “Pink Boar” in their 1-gal getting close to planting-out size:
I let them get fairly dry, then soak them repeatedly during a watering session with collected rain water, until they feel heavy and water flows out.
They are planted in this, sometimes cut with perlite and sometimes straight, which I had delivered as a pile this year:
I have not fertilized them yet other than what’s in that mixture, but will as soon as they go in the ground.
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I got the fertilizer… Which one are you using? Just “grow,” or all three? Or stages?
I use all three all the time as per instructions. I don’t understand why honestly.
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