What heirloom tomato crops deficiency in vigor, they make up for in their superior tasting tomatoes. You can have the best of both worlds — flavorful heirloom tomatoes developed on vigorous plants — by grafting them. By deciding on the best grafting clips for the task, you may present your newly grafted tomato crops their very best chance at a healthy beginning.
Grafting
Grafting is an instance of when one plus one equals one. 1 plant’s roots, known as the stock, splices to another plant’s stem, known as the scion. The result is one plant that has the very best qualities of both contributing plants. Hybrid plants have been bred for higher endurance against pests and disease. When you graft an heirloom tomato scion onto a hybrid tomato rootstock, the new plant is better able to withstand these challenges due to the benefit of “hybrid vigor.”
Best Methods
Cleft, whip-and-tongue and side are a few of the different grafting methods. Plant type, like fruit trees, woody ornamentals or herbaceous plants, determines which grafting way is best. The University of Connecticut Cooperative Extension lists three primary tomato grafting forms: cleft, tube and tongue approach. Cleft and tube grafts are similar in that each requires tomato comes to be completely severed before joining plant parts together. They differ in the shapes of their cuts. The tongue process graft allows the 2 plants to remain on their own rootstocks while joined together at small cuts on each stem. In all 3 grafts, silicone clips hold plants until they fuse together.
Best Clips
Cleft and tongue approach grafts need slightly older plants for success. The very best grafting clips for these methods are more curved, and slightly bigger than the ones that you will need for tube grafts since they have to hold heavier, or older, stems that are 1/8 to 1/4 inch in diameter. The very best grafting clips for tube grafts are more elongated and smaller, for holding stalks on younger plants that are 1/16 around 1/8 inches in diameter.
Factors
The ability necessary to graft tomato seedlings is beyond the range of fundamental gardening, but may be achieved with training. You must align cut surfaces properly or grafts will be ineffective. Sterilize tools before making any cuts, and between every cut, and therefore you don’t introduce infection pathogens. If the graft union is not at least 1/2 inch above the ground, roots from the more disease-prone scion plant may grow into soil and present soilborne diseases to this plant. This will defeat 1 purpose of having a grafted tomato plant.
