Looks like it's getting a leg up from a friend. that's really endearing.

Nice going Richard. What do you do with the excess bit hanging down?
Grafting onto eggplant and tamarillo root stock next?

Hi guys. I know it looks a bit daggy, but I am new at this eh.
The excess bit is probably just there because I don't know what I am doing LOL.
I have seven plants grafted and this is the first that I have severed the original roots from. TESTING TESTING. If there is no wilting tommorow, I may do the rest of them.

I am also growing out one of the rootstock plants to save seed. Dont tell NGS shhhh. I am asuming it is open pollinated which it may not be. But if it is a wild, rampant cherry type it should be the right one.

Grafting onto eggplant or tamarillo, I don't think so. But, Grub reckons I should try grafting onto a perenial. I am thinking maybe a ginko or and oak tree, for a continuous supply of tomatoes :-)

Looks good Oz. Let us know how the yield etc compares to the same variety not grafted.

Why the complicated tongue and groove graft though? I find the easiest way by far with toms is to cut the stock and scion across, then sharpen the scion with two downwards cuts and cut the stock straight down the middle a little, to form a 'v' shaped cleft. Just stick the scion into the cleft and tie.

I hardly have any losses. I generally put an open plastic bag over the top for a day or two to cut down the light a little and slow evaporation.

Manuel.

I tried that with one earlier Manuel, but it did not take. I might experiment with my left over seedlings to see if I can perfect it.
Mantis

hi oz, Im just wondering why you cut off the other rootball? it wont cause any problems for the stronger rootstock variety if you leave it in there. did you try any of the "siamese twin" grafts I posted about ages ago? (raymondo called them siamese twins), but you do the exact same graft as what you did, but you dont do any cutting until after the graft has taken, and then you just slice the top off of the rootstock. as long as the graft is nicely knitted you shouldnt get any failures doing it that way. Just thought Id throw that out there in case you wanted to try it because it uses the same grafting techinique as what you used.

When I first grafted them, I cut off the top of the rootstock plant but left one leaf on it so it would continue to draw sap up the stem. But leaving the whole plant until the graft has taken, like you said, might make the graft take and heal over quicker. I will try that next year.
Cheers Mantis

the only thing with the way I did them, is just being able to identify which top is from the rootstock, so it helps if you mark the rootstock plant like with a texta,or mark the side of the pot where the rootstock plant is, so that when it comes to slicing off the tops, you know which is which. they can get a bit intertwined by the time the graft has knitted. youve done a good job with the grafts, it's tricky doing them without slicing right through!

Yes it is a bit tricky. I had a couple of beers to steady the hands before I did them :-)

Same as what manual said.
The scion can be a little bit larger then the stock as long as one side is lined up, before I got those great grafting clips like in the photo I use to use those alaminun hair clips.(alagator type) simply bend them into shape.I've also found plumbers thread tape worked well for me too.

I tried a cleft graft again today with left over seedlings. It seemed to go a bit better this time. How much of the scions foliage do you guy remove it any?

Well, the Aunt Rubys German Green has not looked back since severing its roots, so I planted it out. Also planted out a Carbon and a Prudens Purple without severing the original root systems.
Trancegemini, I marked on the pots which side was the rootstock and which side the scion. Of course this was not neccesary with the potato leaf varieties.
Cheers Mantis

G'DAY Mantis
what a bloody good feeling it is when you see a graft has taken. All the hard work and research has come through and payed divadends. It would be great if you could post more progressive photos of that or those babies.
As to your question about leaving how many foliage on a scion, i suppose it depends on the particular graft, plant, and size.

In my case about 10 or so years ago i started noticing a variaty of egg plant that was self grown from what i can gather was from bird dropping. these plants would grow 8 foot+ if you let them, they grew near wet places like sprinklers, drippers around other fruit trees. The fruit are in bunches and are about pea size they have prickles throughout the bush. Anyway it seemed the only way to kill them was by ripping them out of the ground. i think it might be i thailand variaty, im not sure. Ive grafted on to a lebenise variaty egg plant before so i thought why not give it a go. growing them to grafting height took a lot longer than the tomatoes that were planted at the same time. Therefore when it came time to graft i was taking the laterals (robbers) off the now big tomatoe plants and sizing them to the stock. Usually all the big foliage would have to come off.

im defintly no expert but after alot of trial and errors, i was quit happy with my hit and miss resaults. the main reason i did it was because of the wilt and namatode probablem that i had.

i havent grafted in two years as i have had great success in the way i grow in 44 galon drams as to th wilt and namatode problems. although i would love to hear about the root stock your using New Gippsland Seeds rootstock.