Sweet Beet Farm and Education team Julie and Pierre sat down to explore the world of grafting tomato plants! We hope you find this video and short outline helpful for you in determining how to try out grating at home or on your farm!
5 resources that have been the guiding posts of our operation:
Dave Trumble and Good Earth Farm (taught us how to graft)
Jean Martin Fortier: The Market Gardener
The foundation model; highly influenced by Eliot Coleman
Land access problems/accessibility to all
Business sense to the farmer & reducing mooda (waste of energy)
Andrew Mefferd: The greenhouse and hoophouse grower's handbook (Maine)
What is grafting? Grafting or graftage is a horticultural technique whereby tissues of plants are joined so as to continue their growth together. The upper part of the combined plant is called the scion while the lower part is called the rootstock. You choose the scion for it’s fruiting properties and the rootstock for its soil born disease resistance.
How we got started with grafting & why are we hosting a webinar?
A core value of ours on Sweet Beet Farm and at Kearsarge Food Hub learning as we grow, and this means community building and transparency throughout our process of figuring stuff out. We are new to grafting, have learned a lot so far, and are excited to continue in the learning process
We employ market gardening and intensive growing techniques, because:
Our intention is to grow nutritious food with soil health in mind on a small plot of land (less than 2 acres) while making a fair wage doing so.
There are no RIGHT ways but rather models that have been adapted to the environment where they exist.
Protected Culture is key
In cold climates we need protected culture!
High tunnels, green houses, hoop houses, row cover, mini-tunnels and much more
Allows farmers and home gardeners to extend the growing season and with the power of technology be able to grow year round
Creates more opportunities for healthy foods to be produced in our home communities
Grafted tomatoes are grown in protective cultures
The importance of tomatoes for a small market garden
The most important, profitable crop for small farms
Grafting can take tomatoes to another level of profitability
Advantages of grafting:
Soil-born disease resistance
Plants are more vigorous & produce over a longer period of time (flattens the production curve)
Yields can increase by up to 50%
Andrew Mefferd: “When I worked at Johnny's Selected Seeds, I did the grafting and ran rootstock trials at the research farm. For many of those years, the trials were conducted in unheated hoop houses. Most combinations yielded a 30 to 50 percent increase over the ungrafted top variety grown as a comparison— and that was without soil borne disease taking a toll on ungrafted tomato plants.”
Disadvantages of Grafting
Will not protect from airborne diseases
It takes time- ½ day of set up and grafting for 100 plants. Subsequent monitoring and adjusting - 30 minutes a day for weeks.
Growing 4 times as much tomatoes to account for as low as 50% success rate and seeds are expensive!---Especially greenhouse bred varieties
Equipment required (for more specifics check out Johnny’s grafting kit)
Healing chamber
Grow lights for babies
Clean cutting equipment (what is it?)
Sterilizers
Clips
Stakes
Process
Start seeds for both rootstock and scion plant ahead of time to do a trial run to see if your timing is right to get both plants to the same diameter for grafting
How to choose which ones to graft?
So many options! Depends on the varieties you want to grow, the environment you’re growing in, and what your problems have been. Search catalogs and reach out to seed suppliers for advice
Grafting happens roughly 3 weeks after planting seeds
Top chop method: chopping the tops of the plants, at the same angle, to then clip the scion on top of the rootstock
Put into healing chamber so grafted plants can fuse together into one plant
Post-grafting considerations
Keep in healing chamber for 3-4 days
Fourth day, we give 20 minutes of light and 20 minutes of fresh air
Increased a bit each day, it’s a bit of an experiment
6th day, bottom watered, made sure they soaked up water
By then, 3 hours of light and some air
A week and half later, 12 hours of light and 1.5 hours of air
2 weeks later, we took them out and treated them like normal plants
Very important - don’t bury the grafting scar when you plant them!
For questions, get in touch with Pierre or Julie!