[Springlands]

I have been looking at the seed catalogues to make a final decision on what new seeds I need for this year. At least one of the seed companies are selling grafted tomato plants at 3 for £9.95  The seed company claim that they are more disease resistant especially for greenhouse growers but this seems really over the top to me when you consider the cost of a packet of seeds. Has anyone ever tried these and what do you think. I will definitely not be spending my pennies on these plants.

[VirginVegGrower]

I bought 3 x Alicante last year from my local farm shop/nursery and they were £2.99 for the lot. They were really strong stemmed plants and gave me no trouble whatsoever, but I grow my outdoor tomatos from seed and they were pretty strong too. Somebody told me to very gently stroke your tomatoes back and forth to mimic wind, which apparently makes them stronger - sounded like bunkum to me but still did it all the same. Felt a bit daft so did it when nobody was watching - draw the line at talking to them though... :happy:

[DD.]

It's seedlings they usually tell you to do that to, not full grown plants!

[Stevens706]

They trialled grafted plants on Beechgrove Garden last year, I think they concluded that the yield was greater and they fruited earlier, however is that worth the extra cost?

[VirginVegGrower]

It's seedlings they usually tell you to do that to, not full grown plants!

That's what I was talkingabout - those that you raise from seed yourself, not the grated ones.  Is it true then, I thought I was having my leg pulled but did it anyhow... :happy:

[lightyears]

I done elegance grafted from dobbies last year, we had 12 morrisons carrier bags full from 3 plants. I have never seen a plant grow with such agression. the finally died in november, about the same time as it got really cold. I'd say its a worth wild investment, if you like lots of tomatoes. Im doing them again this year, but trying a cucumber too from the same range.

[neal]

I tryed these last year as a trial along side the standard variety 12 each of Shirley. The grafted out performed the standard variety by along way both in growth and crop size.  Dobies and Suttons sold them at £9.99p for 3 last year far to expensive for just 3 plants. I sourced mine from Delfland Nurseries at www.organicplants.co.uk . They cost
£1.75p for a pack of 2. They have Shirley and a cherry called Sweet Million and a range of
organic veg plants.
This year a group of us got together from our site and placed just one order this helped keep the postage costs down   
 

[New shoot]

We had these at work last year and there were tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in the range.

They were pricy but I had some rave reviews from customers about the amount they harvested.  They are the sort of varieties commercial growers use for crop production, so you get supermarket style produce albeit home ripened so should be better.  I prefer oddball varieties of these crops so I tend to grow from seed.

[neal]

I thought the price from Delfland was resonable at £1.75 for 2  going on for £1 each at our
local garden center last year for 1 standard variety but I grow these from seed. I think they only do tomatoes as grafted. We only order tomatoes     

[davejg]

If anyone fancies a go I've just found this on youtube tHnOYcI6B44

[Kristen]

I fancy a go ... any idea what Rootstock I need to grow?

I presume I can grow the Scion from the seeds I was already planning to try.

[mike1987]

I fancy a go ... any idea what Rootstock I need to grow?

I presume I can grow the Scion from the seeds I was already planning to try.

you could graft them to a potatoe plant and try that as a experiment i know a few people have tryed with varying degrees of sucess

[Kristen]

Thanks, but rather than an experiment I was after a trial of a rootstock that would encourage vigour and heavier crop size, and then compare side-by-side, so I think I need a rootstock to stimulate that effect?

[mumofstig]

I found these
http://www.vegetableseeds.net/Tomato_Rootstock_He_Man_p/tom18.htm
and seeds-by-size have them as well 

[Lardman]

I rather fancied trying this but forgot to add the rootstock seeds to my moles order  

They are selling arnold and aegis (both F1) for root stock.

edit...

After a bit of Googling it appears you can also graft peppers onto the same root stock  I do like to play with my food.