I tried it once but didn't have the right clips to hold the root stocks and tops together. If I remember correctly I wanted to use root stock from fast growing plant with nasty tomatoes and graph the tops from better tasty slower growing tomatoes. I can't remember the names of the tomatoes I was using but there are specific root stocks grown for sale with desirable traits and sold just for grafting.

I read up and watched a number of Youtube video's on the subject and didn't seem to hard but just didn't have the right clips. I brought it up on another forum and was ripped to no end as nonsense.

kevin, I think that keeping the right humidity level for several days is likely important...delicate procedure I suspect.

Len - I tried grafting tomatoes about five years ago. I still have two sizes of clips. I could share.

Johnny's has 3 different rootstocks, online. I used the Maxifort; which is suggested for "large fruits and long-season crops." read beefsteaks.

I had two problems; one the rootstocks grow much faster than your selected varieties, which I knew but still didn't give my selected varieties enough lead time so that the two stems match somewhat in size. I grew the selected variety over a long period of time some now some later, but it wasn't enough time. You might have to use one season just to calibrate the planting dates. Or; possibly grow them way before the actual season.

The second problem was that they recommend you cover them and keep them dark for a short period, I forget how long. but after a day or so they got moldy and i chucked the experiment. Perhaps instead of using tomato rootstocks you might consider doing tomato plants on potato roots which is "doable".

I've done emergency repair grafts on tomatoes a couple times in the past. Worked pretty well. I treated them like trees, lol. I know that's not exactly grafting, but the process of doing it is the same as a repair. I haven't had a desire to grow out tomatoes on rootstock- it's a one season and done for me.

I would like to someday do a pepper tree, that is more my speed for fun. If I ever have a greenhouse big enough to do it so I don't have to move it.. heh. I would tinker with trying to get a couple kinds of peppers on one rootstock if I could.

Thanks everyone for the input! After doing significant research it looks like the only way for ME to try this is "side grafting", which bypasses all of the highly technical temperature, light and humidity requirements for top grafting, and also can be done with larger plants which should be easier for old hands and eyes.This video was the best source of information.

However the question this all begs is: "Just because I can is there any real reason I should?" It is an extra time consuming and expensive step in what is otherwise a routine process. Time to overthink something else and leave this to the production growers.

Len it is fairly simple to grow tomato clones which is like growing a branch of a tomato plant. You need cloning gel and some rockwool 2 inch squares. Cut one of the upper branches (cut the end of the branch leaving the bloom nodes and a couple of the big leaves) off with scissors, then use a razor blade with a handle and slice the bottom (where you cut it off with scissors) at a sharp angle (120-150 degrees), dip the bottom of the stem in the cloning gel and then push it into the hole in the middle of the rockwool cubes. You can then water them in containers filled with 1/2-1 inch of water until you see loads of roots at which point you transplant them into dirt or one of the bigger 4 inch rockwool cubes.

You can also take a cutting and put it in a glass partially filled with water. Keep it in a sunny location and roots will begin to form in less than a week. Harden off and plant in the ground.

After a nice week- so nice I had linens drying on the lines.... Yesterday was sunny but the wind was wicked. Then this morning I woke up to a half inch of snow and it's supposed to fall off and on for a few more hours. I think mother nature needs to knock it off with the April pranks.

It's looks like we have that 1" of rain knocking on our door here, it will be a welcome relief from the current dry spell. It comes with a price though, mid 30's for the next 2 mornings so I may have to recover a few things as mother nature flirts with frosty conditions.

bees - I do not envy you with your snow. But it's cold here as well. 39 overnight and now up to 42. I managed to plant my lettuce seeds yesterday. It will be 37 overnight tonight then down to 35 tomorrow night. This April is so much colder than normal.

vgkg - We are getting the much needed rain here, too. And it's snowing west of us.

Speaking of wicked winds... we got those frequently. Last week we had a couple days that were really bad. I lost 2 broccoli plants. Winds whipped them around to the point that they basically severed at the ground. I had a few too many anyway, but still, I hate to see that happen.

They're predicting 3-6" of snow in the mountains east of here. The worst in western Maryland. We had some heavy snow which laid down a dusting.. Which surprised me. I thought the ground was warm enough that nothing would lay.

Ok, so not so snow envy.. Rain came down and now it's just wet and extra chilly because it's so wet, lol. I brought in my little lettuce barrel to the enclosed porch just to be cautious. Glad I didn't dink around with uncapping the bins in the kitchen garden and moving the caps over to where I want to put out the onion seedlings yesterday like I had planned though.

Went to the hotels for some salad greens. Could not resistChecking out the tomatoes Which are doing great.

Well how about that! We ended up with a rainy bonus of 1.5" which really helps a lot with the pollen and dry conditions. There's no more rain in the upcoming weekly forecast but there will be a quick return to the 80's in a few days. Meanwhile we're under a frost/freeze warning for tonight (~33F) so I'll be setting up my antifreeze measures one more time......hopefully just once more. No frost this morning, it dipped down to 38F but everything looks ok.

Len, you Went to the hotels for some salad greens-don't you just love spell check!

I, however, went to the garden for mine today. The lettuce and spinach just laughed at the snow that covered them a week ago.

Here we are currently experiencing the 5th wettest April since time began, and may, by the end of this week, hit number one. It's wet here, but we are trying to remind ourselves that we really need to make up our water deficit. With an excellent snow pack and cool temps slowing run-off we will be in a better place this summer (wildfires).

Seeds and Such has a sitewide sale going on now-use Sitewide25 for the code

Jack - It looks like the Spanish Roja garlic is finally sprouting from bulbils. I planted it last fall .along with cloves. The cloves sprouted last fall but the bulbils apparently take their time.

Another warm one today and the next 2 daze will be close to 90F. Planted the 2nd batch of corn and the bush beans today. Tomorrow will be the squash seed and some sweet potato plants. Repotted most of the tomato and pepper plants, they'll go in after the next cold snap expected next Thurs morning, hopefully that will change to the better.

The fall planted spinach is showing some signs of bolting now but we got a huge harvest from it with a couple of more pickings to come. The spring planted spinach will get it's first picking tomorrow. The beets are popping up with carrots close behind, the lettuces are almost in the bowl. Got some nice looking grape size tomatoes out there, hope to have some pictures soon.

Fantastic weather day. I think I might have gotten a little sun, lol. The big thing today was getting the front porch cleaned up. Left it messy last fall and then we lost some of the old wood slats on top during the winter. OK because now I don't have to remove it, but it left more mess, lol.

Got one of the caps off two of the bins- kale, spinach, chard, green onions, radishes. Cap got moved to the kennel, filled a bit with leaves, and three flats of seedlings are now out there to finish off for a couple weeks to be planted out- onions, greens, some flowers. The other bins still have their cap- parsley, and some more seedlings to plant out next week after our last chilly night. Then that cap too will get moved out to the kennel and set up for more flats.

Lettuce barrel is looking good, but the carrots aren't. Something dug/ate up my carrots. And they were just sprouting well and almost ready for me to take the paint sticks off.

Planted a couple potatoes, well, three. I had one bin to use and had hit the feed store the other day and splurged. It's been a couple years since I've grown seed potatoes. Planted out some sweet pea seedlings. Got the rest of the chive pot filled.

All the flats of plants got outside today for a while. Great for really looking over everything and seeing what I still need to do. A little bit of potting up for some plants to carry for the next 2-3 weeks. Some more cilantro needs to be started.

Garlic bed is healthy- hitting 6-7 inches across almost all varieties. Some #$^ critter pushed up a few of the white onion sets I popped in last week. But the shallots are coming up OK.

I haven't been able to plant squat so far. I had my onions and Cole crops outside uncovered and looked like the sun may come out, and the weather channel showed T'storms around 4 pm so I hoped to get something planted.

I was working on my other items but between 8 and 9am I heard a hard rain hitting my roof! Ran outside and it was rain and hail, grabbed my raincoat and got everything under cover. It's been raining on and off all day and just now had another thunder storm pass through, I haven't had a good window in nearly two weeks,

It is supposed to be 66 and Sunny today we'll see what I have to report Tomorrow.

Another Hot one here today around 90F which is forcing our fall planted spinach to go into bolting mode, but the summer crops are liking it ok. We expecting some rain tomorrow afternoon and a coolish spell to follow. Below are some pics from yesterday...

The Peas are about 8" tall and should start to bloom in early May.

Here are the 8 broccoli plants and 4 cabbages (in the back) which were hit by a few freezes, they survived ok but one broc is buttoning up. In-between the 2 rows of broccoli I planted some Sweet Potatoes which will spread out as the brocs peak out and are removed later. The corn in the foreground is the row I tented with shower curtains and heated with light bulbs earlier in the month.

Here is the fall planted spinach up front (soon to bolt), the spring planted spinach in the back which is ready for it's first picking...I'll soon be planting cantaloupes in-between these 2 rows which will spread out later once the old spinach is removed & composted...

The bees did a good job pollinating the Blueberries....

...and lastly my "cheating" tomato plant that I had to cover with my heating box 3 times this month to keep it viable. Hope to pick our first slicer in mid June...

vgkg - There is such a difference between your temps and the temps here. It's overcast here and the predicted high for today is 77. However, I doubt it will get there. Yesterday we hit 83 and it only stayed there for an hour or so. The high was predicted to be 86.

The bees are still buzzing around my blueberry flowers.

Did you see the predicted lows for Wednesday and Thursday? Could be as low as 34 on Wed. and 36 on Thurs. here.

Hi Cindy, yep on those cooler temps for Weds/Thurs mornings here too, but right now (always subject to change) our low temps for those 2 mornings is predicted to be 39 & 40 with no frost expected (fingers crossed). Thanks to the recent ongoing heatwave the ground is very warm and I hope it's a buffer for the coming lows. I also planted squash seed, bush bean seed, and more corn seed this weekend but all of these shouldn't pop up until after this cold snap passes by. No more freezes pleases!!

It was 42F here this morning and tonight it will be 35. After that nothing below 45 showing and only a couple days below 50. I may plant my Provider beans this weekend if the soil is in the low 60s. I'll plant them thick just in case as I have lots of saved seed.

I harvested the first batch of asparagus yesterday. Got about 3/4 lb. and we had it with a roast for dinner.

My indoor peppers and tomatoes are doing great. The tomatoes are only about 3" tall which is right where I want them 2 weeks before expected plant out on May 7th. They should be around 8" by then.

I need to buy some herbs and get them planted in containers this week too. I'll also direct sow some basil when I plant the tomatoes.

Nice Len, and you have some good sized gus for grillin'. Enjoy, I have a couple more weeks before mine comes up, usually around mothers day.

It's supposed to go down to 29°F Thursday morning. The record low for today is 29; but I don't know what it is for Thursday But it's probably close.

We got freeze alert overnight into the morning :( Good thing I haven't done too much and only had to cover a couple bins today. Brought in the lettuce barrel. I'm days from harvesing, not riskin g it.

Did my last bigger round of starting seed before last frost. Pole beans, large sunflowers, nasturtiums. I like to have some seedlings to put out when I direct seed- seems to work well with the critters not being such jerks. I hot pepper my seeds as well to help out. Another round of tender herbs, a few greens to plug in to some succession spots. A last round of multisow beets.

A little bit of repotting. Small cells of lovage, pink celery, and malabar spinach upped. The malabar spinach was sooooo slow to really start up to pop it's first true leaves, but now that it has it really wants to jump. Bottomed down repotted the tomatoes. Last time till planting out :)

Took the last of my garlic braids and slow cookered them with butter and oil. It was time since they were just starting to want to tip green. Took a store bought head of lettuce- the fancy kind in a clamshell with roots intact... got it on clearance for 99 cents instead of it's usual price. Snipped off the lower leaves for dinner (tossing a couple), popped the rest into a small pot of soil to start regrowing out. Great for keeping the next batch of leaves fresh till I want them and start growing out a second harvest for my buck. And look really satisifying on my grow shelf, lol.

Tail end leeks got reburied today. Tail bok choi is flourishing and didn't need anything.

Bees - Sounds like you accomplished a lot today. I only managed to finish weeding my strawberry plants and just in time as it's raining now.

Yesterday when we were predicted to hit 77 degrees, we topped out at 71. Frost likely here tomorrow night and Thursday night.

Nice 'gus, Len.

I'm envious of some of your weather, it's snowing here right now and I thought spring was here!

My garlic is up, I planted 200 cloves last fall and it looks like most/all of them are growing happily. Seed potatoes are sprouting in my storage and I'm just itching to plant something.

I do have those covered boxes/hoop houses Elery made for me, and I'll be moving the cabbage, aspabroc, romanesco and Napa out there in the next week or so, they are always happier out there. Tomatoes and peppers are up, as well as some lavender, but will live inside for at least another 5 weeks.

I do have that second small hoop house, so I'll be planting turnips, mizuna, lettuce and gree onions out there, the other one will serve as the "cold frame" for the cabbage et al as well as the spinach which managed to survive the winter inside the hoop house and is happily growing again. The asparagus isn't even peeping out yet, no leaves on the raspberries or the fruit trees. I need to get outside and hoe that garlic and rake out the strawberry beds, check on the horseradish and see if my 4 new elderberry bushes are going to survive...

Annie

Nutz!....We got 1.25" of precipitation yesterday evening but unfortunately half of it was hail. A hard pummeling for at least 20 minutes of marble/Nickle sized hail which briefly covered the ground in spots. I surveyed the garden damage and it looks mostly in good shape with some plants losing a few leaves and/or broken stems. Just glad I hadn't thinned out the corn yet as the hail did it for me.

I've been thru this type of event a few times over the years (more so in recent years) and it always amazes me how resilient the plants can be. After about a week the plants will look normal, in the end we did need that rain! One silver lining (besides the rain part) is that the hail storm beat the pollen out of the trees.

Freeze warning extended through tomorrow morning :( It might get into the mid 30's today, and with some cutting breezes. I'm not uncapping anything.

Took the gardening day off yesterday and ran errands. Shopped for some T posts to corral dahlias but decided to go back with trailer rather than try to load into my little SUV. Price is almost double last year!

My dahlia cutting bench has been really successful. By the time I plant out in mid may I will have about 50 little plants in addition to tubers!

Today is supposed to be showers but my helper and I will be busy putting out lots of flower starts that are getting root bound in trays. It is still not really warm enough but I'm leaving for a week or possibly two and no way they can stay indoors. There are too many to pot up so they will just have to cope.

We just had rain here but not that much. .03" at Dulles. Think we had a little more than that, however it was very light.

Tonight they are calling for a low of 33 degrees. Too cold!

Now a freeze warning has been issued for just west of here from 1am until 8am. We might be lucky and escape it if the winds continue through the overnight.

We tied the record low temperature for this date this morning at 29°F. Looks like the pear tree that I topworked took the frost rather hard. The leaves on the nurse branches that I left on the tree are wilted. None of the grafts has leafed out anything.

Lettuce and scallions are finally putting on growth after the recent warm weather.

Yuk to the nasty weather everyone is getting! We are having off and on rain with some severe storms predicted over the next week.

Good to see you pop in Annie! Your 'spring' seems to be going like my brother's in Wisconsin. We will be envious of your cooler temps come July when you are still harvesting asparagus. I got another 1.5 lbs. in the last 2 days but a few crowns are either late producing or dead.

I'll be planting out tomatoes and peppers next weekend. The guessers say no lows below 45 predicted in the next week and none below 50 after next weekend. We'll see what they say next week.

Cindy did you get a frost this morning? We weren't supposed to get a frost but there was some scattered about the vehicle tops and other isolated spots, nothing seen in the gardens so hopefully they are ok. I did cover some things before sundown last night just in case, hopefully that's the final time.

As with LoneJack our future temps are moderating with just one more low in the 40's tonite, after that it's warmer days & nights ahead. On Sunday I'll be planting out the remaining tomatoes & peppers and that will complete the inground things except for the cukes, cantaloupes & watermelon seedlings which will hopefully go in sometime next week. After a week of near freezing temps and a hail storm I'm ready for summer!!!

vgkg - I wasn't up in time to see if we had actual frost but it did get down to 35 overnight. Already up to 52 now. Tonight is predicted to be 36 and Saturday night 44. But there's another possibility of high 40s for lows next weekend for us.

I'm going to wait to plant.

We were one degree off the daily low temperature record at 29° F this morning.

I planted about 50 row feet of potatoes today. Mostly Kennebec with a few Red Norland. Next is a patch of Ambrosia corn.

A low of ~50F here this morning and the long range still looks to be warmish 80's/50's for at least the next week or so. I'll roll the dice and complete the tomato & pepper planting outside this weekend. That will finish off all planting other than the young cuke and melon transplants which will go in next week if the long range warm weather predictions holds true. After that it's just planting later corn, cukes, and late tomatoes in the coming weeks ahead.

On the fruit front it looks like the plums and pears production will be very minimal this year, what survived the earlier freezes were punished by last week's hail storm. The figs, apples, persimmons, pomegranates, and blueberries seem a-ok. We did lose some BBs which were knocked to the ground by the hail, hopefully the remaining BBs will be more plump. The figs, persimmons, & pomegranate are just barely waking up now so there were no young buds for the hail to damage. More storms are on the way for late tomorrow, no more hail please!

I finally got a break and got the cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower in and after planting 5 to 6 of each variety they added up to a lot of work. the Patterson and Walla Walla onions went in along with the copra I saved from seed.

Put in a 70' row of Kennebec and burbanks before it rained and it was already 2 hours past due from the weather channel's forecast for rain. But I still had red pontiacs to plant and didn't want to get caught in the rain.

I went shopping and still no rain so I checked Windy.com. they showed no rain coming for another hour! Got one row of red pontiacs in before the rain started and could of gotten the 2nd row in if I would of checked Windy first, but at least I got all the late potatoes in.

I'm done with the weather channel and Windy is now my exclusive weather source. I've been comparing the two sources for 6 months and windy.com has been on the bullseye every time while the weather channel rarely hits the target. Windy shows it will stop raining Sunday at 5 PM.

Next week we will have lows near the mid 40s - again.

Will need to wait another week to plant here.

Big day yesterday getting ready for a week in San Diego. Got half the list done! I'm planting tomatoes and dahlias when I return so they and peppers are spending days outside and nights in the garage. A friend is moving them for me while I'm gone. Peppers will have to wait a bit longer until it is warm enough in early June..

Have a great trip, Len.

Looks like I will be able to leave my plants outside until next Saturday, when it will get cold again overnight for three days.

In all my years growing Onions I've never witnessed what I saw today. Early this morning I observed two crows in my onions so I went to see what was going on, and the crows had eaten the leaves off about 30 onions down to the neck. Planted the onions 6 days ago and they had 4 leaves and large, so when did crows start eating onions? They should regrow leaves but what the heck!

They started yesterday morning apparently! Never heard of it. They only damage I've had to onions were deer stepping on them.

Hey, kevin9408, jump over to the May 2022 thread. I'm surprised the crows didn't pull the onions right out of the ground-they are rascals.