Vegetable Production Seminar set for Friday
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The Victoria County Farmer's Market Association is holding a Vegetable Production Seminar on Friday at the 4-H Activity Center, 259 Bachelor Drive.
Anyone interested in picking up gardening tips or joining the Farmers Market Association to sell vegetables and other farm produce at the Victoria Farmers Market is invited to attend the meeting and seminar. It will will offer two Texas Department of Agriculture continuing education credits - one general and one IPM.
Registration opens at 1:15 p.m., with Kenneth Hanslik, chairman, holding a short business meeting at 1:30 p.m., followed by the seminar.
I will present the topic "Vegetable Production: Planning for Greater Success," followed by a summary of "2009's Victoria County Tomato Variety Demonstration," conducted by Sara Janak, Texas AgriLife Extension Service Ag researcher and Victoria County Farmers Market member.
The final presentation will be "Grafting Tomatoes" by Roy Cook, president of Victoria County Master Gardener Association.
Grafting Tomatoes
At this point you are probably asking "What did he say - grafting tomatoes?
Yes, that is true. Surprisingly, grafting of vegetables has been going on for hundreds of years. Grafting of gourds is documented in the 5th century in China, and grafting cucurbits is in a 17th century Korean history book.
In the 1900s, it became popular in Asia, with grafting eggplants common in the 1950s. By the 60s and 70s, cucumbers and tomatoes were commonly grafted.
The Journal of the Japanese Society for Horticultural Science says that today, more than 95 percent of the watermelons and oriental melons in Japan, Korea and Taiwan are being grafted on squash and gourd rootstocks before transplanting.
Today, the number of vegetables being grafted is estimated to be 540 million seedlings per year in Korea and 750 million in Japan. So you see, it is quite commonplace in Asia, but just getting started in United States.
Why graft vegetables?
The main reason to consider grafting vegetables is to increase production due to losses from soil-borne diseases, such as fusarium wilt, bacterial wilt, verticillium wilt and nematodes.
Grafting tomato on eggplant rootstock is one way of eliminating bacterial wilt, which is a very destructive disease of the tomato.
Some research has shown that tomatoes grafted onto eggplant rootstock yielded a 21 percent higher than the ordinary tomato seedlings. Besides higher yields, improved tolerance to environmental stresses, such as high boron, soil salinity and low soil temperatures, has been observed in some cases.
If nematodes are a problem and you want to grow heirloom or other tomatoes not resistant to nematodes, grafting your favorite non-nematode resistant varieties onto a resistant variety, such as Celebrity, may be an option.
It has been reported that phosphoric acid, flavor, sugar, color, carotenoid content and texture can sometimes be affected by grafting and the type of rootstock used.
However, some reports show grafting negatively affecting quality on vegetables and others show positive effects of grafting on these traits.
Last week, I spoke with Stephen King, agronomist at Texas A&M University, who is doing research on grafting vegetables. He said grafted watermelons did not have a change in flavor, but the maturity was lengthened, possibly due to the robust root system of the selected pumpkin rootstock.
It is hard to comprehend sometimes, but cucumbers can be grafted onto pumpkin, watermelon onto bottle gourd, tomatoes onto eggplant, etc.
Hanslik, current chairman of the Farmers Market and local vegetable grower, said he even grafted a tomato onto a potato years ago.
While the novelty is there, the grafting procedure is fairly simple. It does take several weeks of special plant care, and is usually accomplished to improve quality by minimizing soil diseases through resistant rootstock.
It is not a panacea to all vegetable production problems, and growers must manage their crop for other pests as usual. It certainly is interesting, though.
Cook is planning to graft some small-fruited cherry and large-fruited tomatoes onto the same plant.
This reminds me of James Rother with his five pecan trees and 28 pecan varieties.
Come to the Farmers Market meeting Friday to learn more about this.
If you want more information on gardening, don't miss Victoria County Master Gardener Gerald Bludau's presentation on "Planting a Spring Vegetable Garden" at the Master Gardener Lunch and Learn training, at noon Monday at the Dr. Pattie Dodson Public Health Center, 2805 N. Navarro St., in Victoria. It is worth one IPM credit and open to the public.
Bring your lunch and drink.
Joe Janak is a Victoria County extension agent.
