Grafted tomatoes might just appear bigger than the regular ones, but there’s more to them than their large size- grafted tomatoes are tomatoes with super powers! They have a faster growth rate, great vigor and excellent resistance to diseases. The greatest super power of grafted tomatoes- incredibly high yields!
Tomato grafting isn’t a new concept- vegetable growers in Europe and Asia have been at it for years, but it’s only just starting to gain popularity in the United States. The basic idea behind grafting vegetable plants is to select stock or rootstock on the basis of their resistance to pathogens and their ability to increase yields and vigor. After grafting, the plants are moved to an environment with low light and high relative humidity so, while water stress is reduced, formation of graft unions continues.
Benefits of Grafting Tomato Plants
• Grafted tomatoes can withstand extreme temperatures that regular tomatoes are unable to tolerate.
• Grafted tomato plants have the ability to perform well even in poor soils.
• They have great disease resistance and produce extended harvests.
• Grafted tomato varieties like Brandywine, Black Krim and Mortgage lifter aren’t just prolific producers, they offer strong resistance to some of the most destructive tomato pests and diseases, including verticillium wilt, bacterial wilt, fusarium wilt, tomato Mosaic virus, root-knot and corky root rot.
Grafted tomatoes have some truly amazing advantages and they sure deserve their fair share of space in your vegetable garden. So if you aren’t growing grafted tomatoes already, make it a point to get started this New Year!