A bountiful harvest (From Worcester News)

A bountiful harvest

3:08pm Monday 17th October 2011 in Gardening

THIS year, amid all the hubbub of family life, I’m ashamed to say that I forgot about several plug plants which had been posted to me by Suttons, including the F1 tomato Conchita and the F1 aubergine Scorpio varieties.

They remained in their plastic delivery tubs far longer than they should have done and when I finally planted them into pots on my sheltered, sunny patio in June, they understandably looked somewhat forlorn.

However, in no time at all they perked up and, with a little TLC, all the plants have now given me plentiful crops, which is more than I can say for another tomato plant I bought from a nursery, planted out immediately and lovingly tended but which has succumbed to late blight.

Amazed at the harvest I received from the plants I first neglected, I discovered that they were all grafted plants. The growers select vigorous disease-resistant rootstocks and graft tasty varieties on top, removing the top of the tasty variety by hand, using a small blade to slice diagonally across the stem.

The strong rootstock of the second variety is then removed by the same process and the two plants are grafted together using a special clip, which drops off naturally as the plant grows.

I have found that the grafted plants I tested have been resilient enough to resist my initial neglect and avoid the late blight which has obliterated the fruits on my nongrafted plant.

Likewise, my grafted aubergine, which hasn’t been fed as much as it might, has already produced half a dozen large fruits and more are coming.

Grafted tomato plants have been used by commercial growers for many years and available to home gardeners for the last five, but many amateurs are unaware of the increased yields and vigour they offer.

Although they can cost an average of £10 for three plants, the rootstock encourages greater vigour and your plants will crop earlier and continue later into autumn and produce heavier crops, plus they will have greater resistance to pests and diseases.

Suttons is increasing its range of new grafted plants for 2012, featuring the tomatoes F1 Cupido, a small, sweet plum type replacing Dasher in the range, along with Tomato Twins, which has two varieties from two grafts and one rootstock, producing two different types of cherry tomato – Orangino and Florryno – on two stems, and Tomato F1 Shirley, which produces medium-sized fruits.

Other grafted plants gardeners can try include sweet peppers, melons, cucumbers and butternut squash.

Of course, there will always be those who argue that the relatively high price of grafted plants will be prohibitive and that it’s just as easy to grow tomatoes from seed and end up with many more plants for their money.

Just be aware that, if you are a beginner or have had endless failures with tomatoes in recent years because of blight, the rootstock of grafted plants is highly resistant to soil-borne pests and diseases which can build up in greenhouse border soil and elsewhere.

With this in mind, there surely will be an increase in the purchase of grafted tomatoes and other vegetable plants in the coming years.

Mail order grafted vegetable plants will be dispatched in either late March or April – depending whether they are for the greenhouse or the outdoor patio – and will also be available in garden centres next year.