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Tomato Grafting Technique To Increase Yields
Tomato Grafting Technique To Increase Yields

Video: Tomato Grafting Technique To Increase Yields

Video: Tomato Grafting Technique To Increase Yields
Video: Tomato Grafting: The Process 2024, March
Anonim

Read the first part: Agrotechnology of growing and planting tomato seedlings in a greenhouse

Experiments with tomatoes

Grafting tomatoes
Grafting tomatoes

Grafting tomatoes

Now about the experiment. 2-3 weeks after planting the seedlings, I start my vaccinations. It is very important here not to miss the right moment. The stem of tomatoes should be round. As you know, later it becomes flatter with depressions. In this case, the vaccinations will no longer work, or the vaccination sites grow together with difficulty. Therefore, it is important not to miss the favorable time.

It is better to vaccinate in cloudy weather on the day of the fetus on the rising moon, as a last resort, on the day of the flower. At this time, the rise in sap in plants is stronger. This means that the top of the plant is full of sap and strength. Therefore, the effect of grafting can be enhanced if such plants (tomatoes, apple trees) are grafted on the days of the fetus. You cannot vaccinate on the day of the root - they will not grow together, since all the forces of the plant are concentrated at the root. Once I made part of the grafts on the day of the root, and none of them grew together.

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If the weather is sunny, then I plant tomatoes in the evening, when the sun has already disappeared. After the operation, I shade the plants from the sun - I cover them with a thin spunbond for several days. One more important condition must be observed: do not water the plants a few days before the vaccinations - they should slightly wither. Otherwise, tomato stems will be brittle. A week before grafting, I remove the two lower leaves from the plants.

The following tools and devices are needed for vaccinations: a sharp blade, scissors, duct tape (which stretches), cotton wool, salicylic alcohol, or a bottle of vodka. I put all the inventory in a small shallow basket so that everything is at hand.

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And then I start to vaccinate. I untie the plants from the sticks, tie the top of the tomatoes with a ribbon (not tight) so that they do not crumble. You don't have to tie them if you have an assistant who will hold the top of the plants. Before making an incision on the stem, I figure out where the most successful joint is. I select the most convex part of the stem at the bottom of my tomatoes. I connect the stems to see if they can reach each other. I wipe my hands and the blade with cotton wool dipped in salicylic alcohol.

I make a 4-5 cm long cut from top to bottom on the scion and rootstock, while cutting off a very thin layer of the skin. After each such cut, I again wipe the blade with salicylic alcohol. The length of the sections for the rootstock and the scion must be the same. I connect the places of the cuts together on the stems. With my left hand I firmly hold the connected stems, and with my right hand I tightly wrap them with an electrical tape spiral, moving progressively from the bottom up. Of course, it will be much more convenient to do this with an assistant who will hold the plants. Slices will necessarily grow together if they are firmly connected to each other.

Since I am already planting adult tomatoes, I do not remove the tape from the duct tape later. After all the grafts on the scion (on the left), I remove the upper part of the stem, leaving only two lower leaves, sprinkle the cut site with Bisolbifit powder, and water both plants and spray only the stock with HB-101 solution - when watering 2 drops per liter of water, when spraying 1 drop per liter of water. After two weeks, I remove the bottom leaf on the scion, and after another week I remove the top leaf. Or you can leave one sheet.

The vaccinations will heal in about 2-2.5 weeks. If the grafting does not take place, the crop will still be the same as with normal cultivation. Even, perhaps, injured plants yield more generous yields, since after the stress of the injury, their development accelerates. Viktor Kozlov wrote about this (see "Flora Price" №6 (160) -2013). I know that many gardeners are afraid to injure tomatoes. So my parents, when I did these vaccinations, scolded me for mocking the unfortunate plants. The main thing here is to isolate such observers so as not to interfere.

Grafting tomatoes
Grafting tomatoes

One tomato on two roots

After removing the last leaf on the scion, tomato plants are mulched with compost. Further, care consists in watering after drying out the earth in the greenhouse, removing the stepsons twice a week, in weekly feeding. With the appearance of tomatoes on the lower brush, I remove the lower leaves from the main stem. When tomatoes are tied on the next brush, remove the next lower leaves. But I do not completely remove all the leaves on the stem at the end of July, as many gardeners do. I believe that the leaves should participate in the process of photosynthesis and feed the plants. And how will they do it without leaves ?!

Therefore, the top of the stem of my tomatoes is always leafy. The lower leaves must be removed, they have their own expiration date - they also age. If you leave them, then the tomato bushes will be poorly ventilated, and this will lead to stagnation of air in the greenhouse and to the premature appearance of late blight. By the way, it is also necessary to monitor the scion: the appearance of stepchildren should not be allowed. In wounded plants, they appear very quickly, as they strive to restore what they have lost. It is best to remove leaves, stepchildren and pinch plants on the waning moon on the day of the root. All the strength of the plant is in the root, and therefore they will not experience stress. These days the danger of saping is the smallest.

I restrict the growth of tomatoes at the end of July - I remove the upper part of the plant, except for cherry tomatoes. I think that this time is the most suitable, since the small fruits that have set will have time to grow and ripen. Many gardeners carry out this procedure in mid-August. But at this time, the nights are already cold, and in 2-3 weeks in such conditions, small tomatoes will not have time to grow, let alone ripen. In addition, this period is unfavorable from the point of view of late blight. This does not apply to heated greenhouses.

I remove tomato plants that have finished fruiting in late August - early September, except for cherry tomatoes, so that I can sow radishes, spinach, dill and onion sets on the greens in the vacant space. Cherry tomatoes remain to grow, as they are not greatly affected by the lack of heat and lack of natural light. I usually plant them immediately when entering from the east side of the greenhouse so that they do not obscure the light and shade the green crops.

To attract pollinators to the greenhouse - bees, bumblebees, I plant physalis next to the greenhouse at the door, and in the greenhouse, immediately at the entrance, I plant seedlings of aromatic herbs: Mexican mint (agastakha), lemon balm or aniseed lofant. You can, of course, plant physalis in the greenhouse, but it takes up too much space. In this case, the physalis stalks do not need to be tied to a support, but spread out on the ground so that they are not on the same tier with the tomatoes. During flowering, these plants attract insects well, which subsequently fly over to the plants of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers in my greenhouses.

I would especially like to draw your attention to the opening times of greenhouses in the morning. In cellular polycarbonate greenhouses, doors must be opened no later than 9 am. Otherwise, the air will heat up there, and the pollen from the plants will become sterile, and you will not get the harvest.

I tried to vaccinate at the small seedling stage at home. But she refused this venture due to the fact that the stem is still very thin and fragile - she spoiled many seedlings, breaking them. Such vaccinations must be done together. And transporting such grown-together seedlings is problematic. And then it is even more difficult to plant it alone in the ground from two pots at the same time, because I have no like-minded people. And one more problem: it is important for me to grow roots on the plant as much as possible, but this cannot be done on grafted seedlings. If you plant two tomatoes in one pot and then plant them, then in one container it will not be possible to build up a good root system in two plants at the same time. In plants grafted at an early stage of seedling, it is necessary to tie up the grafting site every now and then due to the constant growth of the stems, and this is troublesome.

Grafting tomatoes
Grafting tomatoes

She began to plant tomatoes in 2010. For the purity of the experiment, I chose several varieties and hybrids. I planted several of the same varieties and hybrids next to each other: a grafted and a control specimen without grafting, so that the difference in the fruiting of plants was visible. And she was visible. And the difference was especially noticeable in a cold rainy summer. The grafted plants gave a richer harvest, and the tomatoes were much larger there. Every year I planted seedlings in the greenhouse earlier and earlier. Last year, I planted seedlings on April 18, as a result, the first tomatoes were formed after May 20. When I began to remove tomatoes from the greenhouse in the fall, I had to tinker with them: despite the loose soil, the root system was very powerful, and the roots were very long. So she did everything right.

I also tried to vaccinate on cucumber plants: I grafted them on a pumpkin. The vaccination was done in the same way. There are some subtleties here too. Grafts were done this time already at the seedling stage, because later the stems of pumpkin crops become hollow. She was grafted when there were only 2-3 true leaves on a cucumber plant. The stem should be elongated, which is often the case with seedlings. Pumpkin seeds for seedlings need to be sown later than cucumber - when the first true leaf appears on the cucumber plant, because the pumpkin grows faster. Inoculated plants with the same stem thickness. I did not remove the lower leaves. A few days before vaccination, the seedlings were also not watered. Everything else, as with tomato plants, only the lower two leaves cannot be removed from the pumpkin, otherwise it will die. After the experiments, she refused from troublesome vaccinations of cucumber,because in my greenhouse cucumbers already give very large yields. Enough for food, and for preparations, and treat friends.

I advise gardeners to try to vaccinate themselves on several plants using excess tomato seedlings. I do not advise grafting all plants at once until you gain experience. And you yourself will see the advantages of this method, although it will require additional work.

Olga Rubtsova, gardener, candidate of geographical sciences,

Vsevolozhsky district of the Leningrad region

Photo by the author

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