• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Search Projects
  • Help
  • Log in

Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education

Grants And Education To Advance Innovations In Sustainable Agriculture
  • Grants
  • Project Reports
    • Search Projects
    • Search Project Coordinators
  • Learning Center
  • SARE In Your State
  • Events
  • Newsroom
  • About SARE

Final Report for OS09-046

Grafting Heirloom Tomatoes on Disease Resistant Rootstock in Western North Carolina

OS09-046 (project overview)
Project Type: On-Farm Research
Funds awarded in 2009: $4,960.00
Projected End Date: 12/31/2009
Region: Southern
State: North Carolina
Principal Investigator:
Susan Colucci
Email
NC Cooperative Extension
Expand All Collapse All

Project Information

Abstract:

In 2009 a field trial was conducted in Henderson County, NC on a grower’s field where Ralstonia solanacearum, causal agent of bacterial wilt of tomato, was discovered the previous year. Because soilborne diseases are difficult to control and this grower uses organic practices, the field trial involved grafting the desired tomato variety onto disease resistant rootstocks to determine if this management strategy would help to control bacterial wilt.

The experiment was a randomized complete block design with five treatments and four repetitions. Plants were planted 24 inches apart on black plastic mulch with drip irrigation. The treatments were, hybrid variety ‘Mountain Fresh’, ‘Mountain Fresh’ grafted onto rootstock ‘RST-04-105-T’, heirloom variety ‘Cherokee Purple’, ‘Cherokee Purple grafted onto ‘Maxifort’ rootstock, heirloom variety ‘Brandywine’ and ‘Brandywine’ grafted onto ‘Maxifort’ rootstock.

Plants were transplanted on 5 June 2009. On 4 August an epiphytotic of late blight, caused by Phytophthora infestans, began in Henderson County and tomato crops throughout the region were devastated. This included this organically-managed, tomato grafting field trial. As a result, data on the effect of grafting on bacterial wilt control was not collected. However, numerical (not statistically analyzed) data shows that the hybrid variety ‘Mountain Fresh’ was more resistant to P. infestans than the heirloom varieties.

Introduction

In western North Carolina (WNC) one of the biggest obstacles for any tomato grower is disease problems. Historically, foliar diseases, such as late blight (Phytophthora infestans) and early blight (Alternaria solani) have been the major disease issues in WNC. Over the past few years there has been a rise in diseases caused by soilborne plant pathogens. Diseases such as southern bacterial wilt (Ralstonia solanacearum), verticillium wilt (Verticillium spp.) and fusarium wilt (Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici) are becoming a widespread issue for tomato producers throughout the region. This increase is thought to be a result of flooding of rivers and streams due to recent hurricane activity. Soilborne plant pathogens are difficult to control even with the use of resistant tomato varieties, fumigation and conventional fungicides. Growers who chose to grow heirloom tomatoes in an organic system face an even more challenging situation because fumigation, synthetic fungicides and disease resistant varieties are not available as a management strategy.

In August of 2008, bacterial wilt (R. solanacearum) was identified on heirloom tomatoes growing in Henderson County. The farmer was concerned that bacterial wilt would halt the production and income of heirloom tomatoes on his farm, which provides a steady market year to year. Though the farmer is not certified organic, he runs his operation following organic standards. Because there is limited to no genetic disease resistance in heirloom tomatoes and fumigation is not an option for his system, management recommendations were limited to rotating the field with a non-host and finding another location for the heirloom tomato production. Concerned that soilborne disease problems would continue to be a problem even in other fields, and the very high price of land in WNC, other methods of managing disease situations in heirloom tomato production need to be identified and evaluated.

This farmer’s situation is not uncommon in WNC and it is expected that the disease problems will continue to increase, especially as the incidence of soilborne disease pressures increases. The use of grafted vegetable plants on resistant rootstock as a management strategy for soilborne disease problems has the attention of the organic community in WNC looking for ways to successfully produce tomatoes for their markets.

  • Data collected from the trial
Project Objectives:

The objective of this research project was to determine the benefits and challenges of using grafted tomato transplants to control soilborne disease problems. Unfortunately, the foliar disease problem, late blight (Phytophthora infestans) was detected early in the cropping season and progressed rapidly as the cool, wet weather dominated the growing season. As a result, data was not reliable and appropriate for the determination of the benefit of grafting. Though it was not an objective for this trial, numerical results show that the variety ‘Mountain Fresh’ was more resistant to late blight than the heirloom varieties used. Data included as a spreadsheet.

  • Late Blight Leaf
  • Late Blight Tomato
  • Late Blight

Cooperators

Click linked name(s) to expand
Billy Haynes
Grower
Blackbird Farms
East Flat Rock, NC
Frank Louws
frank_louws@ncsu.edu
Professor and Extension Specialist
Plant Pathology Department, North Carolina State U
Campus Box 7616
NCSU
Raleigh , NC 27695
(919) 515-6689 (office)

Research

Materials and methods:

The experiment was a randomized complete block design with five treatments and four repetitions. Plants were planted 24 inches apart on black plastic mulch with drip irrigation. The treatments were, hybrid variety ‘Mountain Fresh’, ‘Mountain Fresh’ grafted onto rootstock ‘RST-04-105-T’, heirloom variety ‘Cherokee Purple’, ‘Cherokee Purple grafted onto ‘Maxifort’ rootstock, heirloom variety ‘Brandywine’and ‘Brandywine’ grafted onto ‘Maxifort’ rootstock.

  • Healing Chamber
  • Grafted Transplant

Project Outcomes

Recommendations:

Areas needing additional study

The benefit, challenges, viability and economics of tomato grafting for the control of soilborne diseases still need to be studied in western NC on growers’ fields.

Return to Project Overview
Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or SARE.

Primary Sidebar

Footer

SARE - Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education USDA
1122 Patapsco Building | University of Maryland | College Park, MD 20742-6715

This site is maintained by SARE Outreach for the SARE program and features research projects supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture. SARE Outreach operates under cooperative agreement award No. 2018-38640-28731 with the University of Maryland to develop and disseminate information about sustainable agriculture. USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education © 2019
Help | Contact us