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Projects

Grafting of Tomato

Status: Finished

Year: 2019

Project type Grafting of Tomato

Background

Grafting is a well-known technique that enables to combine the best of two worlds in tomato production. In grafting, a strong and resilient rootstock to support the water and nutrient uptake and a scion (the top part) that promises to give the wanted growth and quality in terms of taste is used.

In modern tomato-production in the Netherlands, practically all tomato plants are grafted. As growers have to put a notable effort in grafting, there must be a clear benefit in terms of an increased production compared to growing the tomato varieties on their own root system. In three subsequent experiments, the effect of grafting has been examined.

Experimentntal history

Seed Sowing:27 January 2019
Grafting:6 February 2019
Transplanting:26 February 2019
Plant Density:2.5 plants per m², every other stem doubled, so 3.75 stems/m²
Harvesting Period: 5 May 2019 – 11 December 2019 (32 weeks)
Number of Harvests: 57

Goals

This project aims to get hands-on experience and skills in grafting tomatoes and to test the benefits in terms of production and quality of grafted scions on strong rootstocks compared to their growth on their own root system

The main factors studied are:

Two different tomato rootstocks: Maxifort and Beaufort
Two different tomato varieties: Tone Guitar and Forrester

Result overview

Success rate of grafting: 90%; meaning that 10% of the plantlets did not recover well from the cutting and re-growing.

Grafted plants showed more resistance to Blossom End Rot (less occurrence), but still had a lower production level than the non-grafted tomatoes.

No significant difference between the applied rootstocks

In general, Tone Guitar performed better than Forrester.

category	Low-Tech		Low-Tech (Soil)		Med-Tech (Diffused Glass)		Med-Tech (Clear Glass)		Hi-Tech
	Harvest kg/m2	Good	Harvest kg/m2	Good	Harvest kg/m2	Good	Harvest kg/m2	Good	Harvest kg/m2	Good
TG 1pl/pot /pot	56.88	84%	65.81	96%	58.35	94%	61.83	92%	54.15	92%
TG Beau	58.26	85%	68.74	94%	66.27	88%	58.75	85%	54.45	93%
TG Uni	61.33	88%	60.66	94%	60.55	91%	55.75	85%	54.82	93%
F 1pl/pot					59.9	91%	58.1	87%	50.97	93%
F Beau					61.82	89%	56.41	82%	51.49	93%
F Uni					64.36	92%	50.52	85%	47.76	93%

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