Re: Grafted Tomatoes

**K* M* <k*@iol.ie>**

In the UK and Ireland, where tomatoes were traditionally grown in small greenhouses, there has traditionally been a problem with disease build up in soil borders. Nowadays most people growing in these conditions buy grow bags - small bags of compost with slow release feed which are discarded at the end of the season. But back in the fifties when I was growing up these weren't around and there were three options
1. Change the soil in the bed every year
2. Use ring culture - growing in a baseless pot which stood on a base of pebbles or, more often, clinker
3. Graft. The main disease problem was tomato mosaic virus so a tmv resistant rootstock variety would be grown. 
I don't know any variety which would give really good late blight resistance. Nowadays we mostly grow in polytunnels here and the humidity means that late blight runs riot unless one is very careful about irrigation techniques

kathryn

On 31 Jan 2010, at 19:14, Hamptongar@aol.com wrote:

> Last summer there were a number of threads regarding the Late  Blight 
> outbreak on tomatoes and there were a few threads about grafted  tomatoes.  
> 
> I understand grafting tomatoes to get improved yields on a  commercial 
> level but why would one want to do this in a home garden?  The  practice does 
> seem to improve yields when some rootstocks are used on heirlooms  but I think 
> most tomato diseases are air, vector and water borne in which case  
> grafting would offer no protection.  As far as I can tell the only disease  
> protection offered through grafting would be against Fusarium  wilt and  Ralstonia 
> (Southern wilt).
> 
> Can anyone help me out with more information?  Why would  a home gardener 
> want to graft his/her tomatoes and are there any mail order or  internet 
> retailers offering grafted plants.
> 
> Thanks.  Spring will come.  It always  does.
> 
> Andrew
> 
> 
> Andrew Messinger
> The Hampton Gardener is a  registered trade mark and is published every 
> Thursday in The Southampton Press,  The Press and the Easthampton Press
> 
> 
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