How to Graft Your Own Tomatoes

Some of you may have seen grafted tomatoes cropping up in garden centers over the past couple of seasons. But what really is the difference between a grafted tomatoes and non-grafted tomatoes? Grafted tomatoes have turned up for many of the same reasons that we graft other plants. Tomato grafting first because practice in the 1960s when grafting was mainly done to make the tomato plants more disease resistant. Now, grafting is done for a number of different reasons. Sometimes growers graft tomatoes so that they are more resistant to abiotic stresses (salinity, drought, flooding) or they choose rootstocks that are better suited to their growing conditions (soil, temperatures, etc). This hardier rootstock is then attached to a scion (aka "the top part") of a variety that the growers want. In some cases, grafting can also cause the tomato plant to be higher yielding, extending it's growing season at the beginning and the end.

One common factor among grafted tomatoes that you'll see when you're shopping around your garden center this spring is that, usually, these plants are more expensive than your normal tomato plants. For some, the cost is worth it for the higher yield and higher tolerance to several factors. But if you want to try your hand at grafting and skipping the higher prices at the register, here's a step-by-step tutorial for grafting your own tomato plants.

Thursday Lab Update

Today in lab we grafted apple trees which was a really fun technique...until I sliced my finger open with a grafting blade. A bit (or a lot...) of blood, paper towels, a band-aid and 10 minutes of holding my hand above my head later, my teacher helped me finish up my tree. The bottom graft is a Honey Gold apple tree and the top graft is a Honey Crisp. So I should, eventually, have tree that grows both types of apples. Pretty cool, right?

I bled for these grafts so they better grow well. :P

The philodendron experiment wrapped up today so I potted some of them up and will take them home once the roots have gotten used to the new soil.

 

Philodendron

Our lab group is also growing some plants from grocery produce. We have little kumquat trees, celery, ginger and shallots grown from produce we just got from the local grocery store. 

 The kumquats we grew from seeds picked right out of the fruit itself. You have to make sure the seed looks greenish and fat. The shriveled, small seeds aren't viable and won't grow if you stick them in soil.

 Our shallot has been growing nicely.

 The ginger root is doing well too.

Here's the celery plant which we literally just broke off and stuck in the soil.

The other experiment we started today was microgreens. These are going to be really fun to watch because they'll grow really fast. We just scattered seeds on about an inch to 2 inches of soil, covered lightly with a bit more soil, watered and set in the mist house so they can be kept consistently moist. 

I planted basil, arugula, beets and curly cress.

 And here's a picture of the misthouse for those of you who've been wondering. 

We root things in our sandboxes and keep anything else (like the microgreens) that need to be moist constantly in here. Those low hanging pipes have mist nozzles sticking out every so often and turn on and off, sometimes giving a horticulture student a good spritz in the face when they're least expecting.