Grafted Tomatoes - The Best of Two Worlds

Welcome back, and as always thanks for reading my blog.

Another fairly new development in tomatoes is grafted tomatoes.

I was really surprised when I read about these a few years ago.  I remember my grandfather and father grafting apples trees.  It was a technique to join two branches together making it possible to have several different types of apples on the same tree.

I would never have thought that grafting would be possible for tomatoes.

So why graft tomatoes?

In this case the reasoning is to use a hardy root stock that has greater disease resistance and graft it to a great tomato variety that by itself may be vulnerable to diseases.  For instance, many of the heirloom tomato varieties can be prone to disease.  The result is a plant that provides protection from diseases such as tomato mosaic virus, nematodes, verticillium wilt, and a number of other diseases based upon that specific root stock.

Grafted plants are available commercially, and it also possible for the home gardener to graft for themselves.

For more information, including how to graft yourself, see the following article in Organic Gardening:
 http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/grafting-tomatoes

Tomato grafting technique

Tomato grafting technique

So where can you buy grafted tomato plants?  Following is just a few examples of grafted tomato plants:

Park Seed - Mortgage Lifter Grafted

http://parkseed.com/product.aspx?p=87766-PK-3&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=ppc_google_pla&CAWELAID=1284038358&catargetid=1459746967&cadevice=c&cagpspn=pla&gclid=CJXVs5yh9bwCFe1QOgodIQsA7g

Mortgage Lifter Grafted Plant

Hirt's Gardens - Costoluto Genovese Grafted Tomato

http://www.hirts.com/Mighty-Grafted-Costoluto-Genovese-Tomato/dp/B00BFI6QTU?traffic_src=froogle&utm_medium=organic&utm_source=froogle&gclid=CIiov_yh9bwCFYw7Ogod1RIAoQ

Territorial Seed Company - Legend

http://www.territorialseed.com/product/13153/538/?r=MWGBASE&gclid=CLSbt8Cl9bwCFYRxOgodcnQAKQ

Legend Grafted Tomato

This variety has shown resistant to the late blight which has become a very common and devastating tomato disease in recent years.

Finally, a nice graphic showing what to plant that will attract bees.  I am mainly a vegetable gardener, but I do plant wildflowers and sunflowers each summer in my gardens.

Until next time.