Grafting Rootstocks onto Heirloom and Locally Adapted Tomato Selections to Confer Resistance to Root-knot Nematodes and other Soil Borne Diseases and to Increase Nutrient Uptake Efficiency in an Intensive Farming System for Market Gardeners

View the project final report

• 2006 annual report
• 2007 annual report

Commodities

• Vegetables: tomatoes

Practices

• Production Systems: general crop production

In a 2006 controlled environment experiment, shoot and root biomass, height and most total tissue nutrient concentrations were greater in grafted treatments. In replicated 2007-2008 field and high tunnel trials at the Center for Environmental Farming Systems, Goldsboro, NC, yields of grafted organic heirloom tomatoes were higher than non-grafts. Both years fruit weight and fruit number were higher and production peaked three weeks earlier in the tunnel system than the field. In on-farm trials, soilborne diseases such as bacterial wilt, root-knot nematode, Fusarium wilt and southern stem blight were effectively managed utilizing rootstocks.

Tables, appendices with figures or graphs mentioned in this report
are on file in the Southern SARE office.
Contact Sue Blum at 770-229-3350 or
sueblum@uga.edu for a hard copy.

1. 1. Improve grafting, acclimation and transplanting techniques.
   2. Select appropriate rootstocks for root-knot nematodes and other soilborne diseases.
   3. Select appropriate rootstocks for increased nutrient uptake efficiency and other horticulturally valuable traits, such as fruit quality, earliness, vigor, and resistance to pests.
   4. Test training and establishment techniques for grafted rootstocks, including single and multiple head systems.
   5. Compare performance of scions grafted onto resistant rootstocks, self-grafted and non-grafted controls under realistic conditions of soilborne disease pressure.
   6. Compare performance of scions grafted onto resistant rootstocks, self-grafted and non-grafted controls under optimal growing conditions on an organic research station.
   7. Evaluate a grafted rootstock-high tunnel tomato system for feasibility, including a preliminary assessment of the economics. This system will be compared with open-field production.
   8. Identify promising avenues for future research and development.