Grated Tomatoes

Has anyone tried Burpee's grafted tomato varieties? They are grafting Heirlooms & Hybrids for disease resistance. Not sure if this is the first year they've offered them, but I've never seen them before. They're pricey, but with all my losses in the past due to different issues, I thought about trying a 3 pack of some of the ones I've had issues with-namely Big Rainbow and Black Krim. They're seedlings, of course. Does anyone have any experience with these or any knowledge about them? Thanks!
Peggy

Peggy, it all depends on which specific diseases you have where you grow tomatoes. The tolerances to diseases on the rootstock are for diseases you may not even have where you are.

The most common diseases of tomatoes, world wide, are the foliage diseaes, the two fungal ones, Early Blight and Septoria Leaf Spot, and the two bacterial ones, Bacterial Spot and Speck. And root stocks have no tolerance to those at all.

And I keep saying tolerance instead of resistance, b'c there's no complete resistance, maybe a bit initially, especially to systemic diseases such as the three strains of Fusarium, then Verticillium, etc. But eventually the plants will go down with those diseases as well.

I read and sometimes post at several message sites and lots and lots of folks have tried grafted plants, such as the ones that Territorial Seed offered starting a few years ago, and quite a few folks are also doing their own grafting and there are threads here at DG in this Forum abut that as well.

Hope that helps,

Carolyn

Thanks Carolyn

I tried the Burpee grafted Brandywine last year and was very impressed. I had one Brandywine that I started from seed myself and the Burpee grafted one planted together in a self watering planter in my greenhouse. They were the same size at planting time. The grafted on far out preformed the own root. I had over 30 tomatoes on the grafted compared to 4 on the own root.

For certain varieties, I think the grafted is worth the extra cost

I found a photo. The own root is on the left & the grafted on is on the right

Joannabanana, Thanks so much for responding. I have had problems in the past with a few tomatoes that I really liked otherwise, so I decided to try a few of these and see if it makes any difference. I didn't get much response, but I went on and ordered them anyway. Nice to know I may not have wasted my money! Both of your tomatoes look healthy, but obviously the grafted one has much fatter stems and leaves! I'm trying Cherokee Purple, Big Rainbow & Mortgage Lifter. Big Rainbow was so tasty, but after about a month it croaked!!

I hope they do well for you. I'm not sure which will be my grafted choice this year, but I will get one.

Well Good Luck with 'em whatever you choose! I love this website. . .
it helps me so much. I'm so excited to be starting the process again!