Master Gardeners Tomato Experiment Update
Tomato Experiment Update
Late August, 2012
More experimenting than usual underway this year!
Varieties of grafted and non-grafted tomatoes being compared:
Early Girl
Ispolin
Arctic Plenty
Of these 3 varieties the ‘Early Girl’ (grafted and non-grafted) were planted in 3 different environments:
Open garden
10 x 10 vinyl shelter
Smaller clear plastic dome (large enough to contain 1 grafted and 1 non-grafted tomato plant)
The planting medium, watering schedule and fertilizing schedule have been the same in all 3 environments.
The grafted and non-grafted ‘Early Girls’ were transplanted and relocated to the dome on April 28. Fruit on each plant in the dome started to show ‘color’ on August 20.
Fruit on the grafted Early Girl plant in the shelter started to show ‘color’ on August 22. Fruit on the non-grafted Early Girl in the shelter was still green on August 22. These Early Girls were planted in the shelter on May 18.
The grafted and the non-grafted Early Girl planted in the open garden have only green fruit. These were planted in the open garden on June 10/11.
Additional varieties of non-grafted tomatoes being tried this year in the open garden (unless otherwise noted):
Tom Thumb – red
Tom Thumb – yellow
Sun Gold
Margherita
Black Krim
Lemon Boy
Far Eastern Rose
Striped Roma
Bloody Butcher
Stupice
Mountain Magic
Alaska
Sun Sugar (in shelter)
White Tomato (planted 6-21-12)
Black Cherry
All were planted on June 10/11 (unless noted) and all have been on the same water/fertilizer schedule.
1st to ripen fruit: Tom Thumb – red August 8
2nd to ripen fruit: Sun Sugar (shelter) August 10
3rd to ripen fruit: Stupice and Tom Thumb – yellow August 11
4th to ripen fruit: Bloody Butcher August 22
The jury is still out on the value of using grafted tomatoes in our area. Vegetative growth on plants is significantly more robust, however, early season production was not improved. With the exception of Sun Sugar, the first plants to produce ripe tomatoes were non-grafted varieties planted in the open garden.
The grafted tomatoes could produce later into the Fall season -- time will tell! Tune in for the September update.
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