Good morning, recently I became aware that all Solanaceae (tomato, pepper, eggplant,potato...) can be grafted to each other. This I find amazing because of the difference in vegetative growth between the members in this family.
I have heard and seen where potatoes are used as a root stock for tomatoes. Of all the plants mentioned above these two are the most similar. It could be that you do not hear about the others being cross grafted because the"woodiness" of the vegetation makes grafting more difficult. Of course the youngest material would be grafted. At this stage they all would be most similar.
One could ask, why would you do that?
By grafting tomatoes to potatoes double cropping would be easy, where all season you are harvesting peppers, eggplants or tomatoes and then in the fall there would be the potato harvest.
There is another reason but this one would not work for potatoes. There have been hybrid tomatoes bred to be very resistant to many of the ailments that are common among solanaceae.
These hybrids have very robust root systems and have the potential of increasing the yields of the scion material that is grafted to them. This is why grafting potatoes to these hybrids would not work, after all it is the roots of potatoes that produce the spuds.
There are two ailments to this group of veggies that the hybrid root stock would be helpful to me. The first is tomato mosaic virus (TMV) and the other is none other than root knot nematodes (RKN).
The root stock would protect against any TMV that is in the soil. My main source of TMV is from thrips populations in the native grass lands around my garden. I have found that they are not a problem except in extremely dry springs, such as last spring. Thrips like succulent plant growth to suck on and thus they move into the garden from the desiccated range land.. Most all of my beds are covered with fabric and this protects them for the most part. It is when I need to do bed work that they become exposed. If there is a time of day or night that thrips are most active, not working the beds at this time would be very helpful. For an example, carrot rust flies are active at specific times of the year form mid to late morning. I have found that when they hatch they are drawn to the white fabric that I use. When I see these swarms I only work the carrots of an evening when the flies are not active. This approach could work with the thrips too, depending on their active periods.
I do have TMV in the garden due to the thrips. Using the above mentioned precautions and the root stock, maybe the TMV could be eradicated in the garden or at least controlled.
There are two crops that I grow that seem to be most susceptible to RKN. These are tomatoes and okra. The other solanaceae do not seem to be as vulnerable to RKN but this root stock may improve their resistance. I have found no RKN resistant okra or root stock
Ah yes once my spring rush is over I hope to practice grafting. Maybe I should see how easy it is to graft eggplants and peppers to tomato root stock.
For funzies I might try grafting tomatoes to potatoes. Most of my potatoes are short season varieties and the tops die back after 90 days. If the tomatoes kept the roots alive awhile longer could this improve the spud harvest?
Who knows this is all intriguing. Now for that "roundtuit".
Yesss there are veggies his week.
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