You didn't mention how many people you are feeding or if you plan to do food preservation. For two people, I think two 25 foot rows of beans may be too much (I plant one yellow, one green) if 2 people are just eating fresh. I think beets are low maintenance. You can enjoy thinnings as green and harvest the beets from small to large. I also think a variety of broccoli that makes side shoots might also be considered low maintenance. I think I might even include swiss chard on the list. I agree with corn, potatoes, winter squash and peppers. We anticipate our pepper crop with joy, frugally harvesting when they get just big enough and crossing our fingers for a nice crop of sweet red peppers. I grow a variety of heirlooms. My list might be biased toward rainy New England summers. Except for seeding, I don't think I've needed to water much. I also started my big beds as lasagna beds topped in the spring with nicely aged compost. If it weren't for the nasty creeping jenny and witch grass reaching into the garden from the field, I wouldn't have much weeding to do. Last year I planted carrots in the row of sugar snap peas. By the time the peas were done, the carrots had a good start. I might not have gotten great germination because of planting like that but I didn't have to do any thinning.

I think it's plausible that a different rootstock might subtly affect how certain traits manifest. It might increase or decrease production or affect fruit size, texture (due to water differences), even flavor of fruit. We know that rootstocks can definitely affect the quantity and quality of foliage. Why not fruit? Yeah, genes are genes, but epigenetic influence can be significant, and a different rootstock does change the exposure of the scion to environmental factors having to do with nutrient/water uptake and circulation. While I'm sure that any effects that do exist would most likely be minor, it's not as though there's no plausible mechanism for the rootstock affecting things like taste, production of fruit, etc. I'm sure a lot of those possibilities will be studied if tomato grafting becomes more practiced commercially. I wonder whether there is a body of research on it in other countries that have practiced widespread grafting for much longer which is not available internationally because it's not in English. EDIT: Grafting effects on vegetable quality "Most reports on grafting suggest that changes in the scion are controlled by the rootstock through controlled uptake, synthesis, and translocation of water, minerals, and plant hormones[...]A few studies have explored how the scion is affected by mRNA and protein migrating from the rootstock. [Some researchers] showed that mRNA and [...] phloem proteins from the rootstock can migrate from the rootstock through the phloem to the scion and accumulate in the phloem and apical tissues. One of these mRNAs is a member of a gene family in which some the members are reported to be involved in apical meristem development[...] Another was shown to change leaf morphology of potato scion when grafted onto transgenic modified tomato rootstock. Tiedemannand Carstens-Behrens (1994) studied the phloem proteins that differed in cucumber (C. sativus) grafted on figleaf gourd (C. ficifolia) or on pumpkin (C. maxima). They found four proteins on sodium dodecylsulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis gels in grafted scions that do not appear in control plants but matched the rootstock phloem protein pattern. Two of the proteins match the phloem protein 1 and phloem protein 2 molecular weight of the rootstock. Ruiz-Medrano et al. (1999) suggest this migration is a novel mechanism likely used to integrate developmental and physiological processes on a whole-plant basis. The phloem proteins role may be in long-distance transport of RNA within plants[...]"

The Maxifort F1 I used last season was from De Ruiters Seeds. Viability - 100%, and extremely vigorous. Germination in 48 hours. I see that other companies are starting to offer them as well. The F2 seed that I saved had 100% germination as well, but lacked the extreme vigor that the F1 had shown. MAXIFORT F1 While these F2 may still have many of the disease resistant traits, It's the vigor of the F1 in which I'm most interested. Production in general, was better on the grafted plants, noting also that they began setting fruit up to a couple of weeks earlier as well. Most markedly improved - a Brandywine, least difference, a Cherokee Purple. Admittedly, due to the small numbers of plants overall, that had non-grafted counterparts for comparison, this could have been more scientific. None the less, from what Ive seen, Im very encouraged. In regard to taste, I couldnt notice any difference between grafted and non-grafted fruits. I forgot to taste any of the Maxifort berries. Here is part of another post with some grafting tips I made at another forum; -I have played around with some grafting techniques, and have found top grafting (tube graft) to be the most fool-proof for me. Smaller seedlings seem easier to handle and care for, with less requirements for time and space. Youll know relatively soon if youve been successful or not. Many of the sites Ive read, put a lot of emphasis on sanitation, which I found to be one of the least critical factors in the success of a graft taking. Not that there is anything wrong with sterile tools and work area, but as I practiced more, all that went pretty much out the window and my results continued to improve. Most important, seemed to be that the scion and rootstock were well matched in terms of size (diameter) and cut (angle). Next, that they be kept in relative high humidity during recovery. A well done graft might show no sign of wilting, while a bad attempt will wilt severely and maybe not recover. In matching tops and bottoms, an accurate planting schedule should be determined. The idea is for rootstocks and scions to reach grafting size at the same time. Ive seen sights that recommend planting Maxifort rootstock prior to the scion stock, which would have been disastrous for me, as every cultivar Ive matched with it has needed about a two week head start against this vigorous variety. You can test germinate the varieties you are using to get a time frame, and work backwards from there. Some sites state that the cut must be made below the cotyledons or some such nonsense. I get better results making the cuts at the points where the diameters best match for size. Just be vigilant for any unwanted suckers below the graft, as they grow true to the rootstock. This would be undesirable for large scale growers, but simple enough for a backyard gardener. If however, you want two cultivars on one plant, this is probably the easiest method to use. As for tools, for making cuts, Ive found the thinness of double edge razor refills make the cleanest cuts. Theyre cheap, and worked better than my Exacto, or any thing else Ive found for that matter. For the patch, Ive tried clips, clamps, tapes, and even Liquid-Bandaid. By far, the easiest to use for me, were the silicon grafting clips. Latex tubing will also work. I found some at the medical supply shop down the road for $1.99/ft. They would even sell it by the inch, but for versatility and ease of getting everything in place and secured, the silicon clips are the way to go. For a recovery chamber, as a hobby gardener, Ive found an upside down aquarium in my indoor seed starting area to be ideal to maintain a humid environment for the 4-5 days necessary to heal. For larger clef and side grafts, Ive had some success using 3M Nexcare surgical tapes and Popsicle-stick splints. Tomatoes are pretty resilient, it surprises me what they can endure. Good luck, George. http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/graf...dsgrafting.htm ohio state info http://www.deruiterseeds.com/page/Co...g_instructions de ruiter info top grafting

Thanks to the Jackson and Perkins professional that chimed in here - it's good to see you responding to concerns and having a gardener-friendly policy. My experience has been that sometimes that policy is not equally applied in gardener-friendly ways in some circumstances or by some customer service representatives. I will give two examples that suggest some adaptations that might be needed in your policy implementation. About 3-4 years ago was the time that many of us here on Gardenweb noted that bare roots from J&P were particularly slow to come out of dormancy. In my case, they weren't necessarily dead canes, they just never showed new growth buds or leafed out. I believe in giving roses every chance I can to survive, since i don't like burdening companies with refunds unless necessary, so I waited a good 3 months and about 3 of the 12 roses I ordered did finally break dormancy. Unfortunately, by the time I'd asked for a refund for the 9 that never broke dormancy at all I was told it was beyond the 60 (or is it 90?) day guarantee and a refund was not possible. The next year, I did alert the company within the 60 day period (perhaps late June) that a rose was dead, and the representative's response was that since the rose in question was not rated as hardy to zone 5 it would not be replaced. I totally understand that policy as applied to winter survival, and I would never ask for any replacement because of dying after a zone 5 winter regardless of what it was rated. However, the hardiness of a rose shouldn't have any impact on the rose coming out of dormancy and surviving in its first summer. in recent years I have had prompt and effective refunds for roses that fail to thrive from Jackson & Perkins but I can no longer order any rose that I'd want from your offerings or give the roses a chance to thrive beyond a month or two because of these policies. I fully admit that I've had the creeping cane death in roses from any bare root company, but some companies are routinely more susceptible to it and yours is among those. I can't pinpoint what is the difference in the cultural practices among the bare root companies so I don't know what to expect, but there is something systematically different. So I don't think there's a policy change that could help with this latter issue, but the first two issues above could be addressed by adapting the policies or allowing the representatives discretion in responding to the situation at hand. I appreciate your willingness to provide input to these discussions! Erasumus, back to your original topic, I'm glad this wasn't a systemic problem but a question about best rose practices in general. i tend not to prune most bare roots before planting unless I see problems, for fear of creating more injuries that introduce possible pathogens to enter at the cut point. I agree that Palatine's advice is based on a solid foundation, and I'd be curious to see what their rationale is for that practice. Cynthia