Posts Tagged: grafting

Grafting Tomatoes

Call me old-fashioned, but the way I view tomatoes, any plant that survives a Vacaville summer and any fruit that clings to its vine long enough for me to pick is a hot commodity. However, after reading a March 7, 2013 article in USA TODAY, I discovered that change was taking root in the industry. With consumers looking for bigger and better, good-tasting, longer-producing tomatoes, breeders and growers are working overtime to combine the taste of heirlooms with the hardiness and production of hybrids. Disease and insect resistant, vigorous tomato rootstock is now the hot commodity. 

Of course, there’s a hefty price tag for a super tomato plant promising a double or triple yield. About $8 each. Plus some vines reach over a dozen feet or more. John Bagnasco, radio host of GardenLife, says, "Tomato grafting is the biggest thing to happen in gardening, probably in 20 years." With gigantic vines like that, I guess so.

For information on how and why tomato grafters do it, you can peruse online the above mentioned article by Chuck Raasch entitled “Graft and production: Super tomatoes pay off on the table.” Here’s the link:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/02/09/grafted-tomatoes-become-super-producers/1903799/

Tomato graft. (Photo of tomato grafting © www.new-ag.info)

Queen Bee to Be

One of the highlights of Susan Cobey's class on "The Art of Queen Bee Rearing" is a visit to commercial queen bee breeders in Northern...

Egg

TINY EGG, a future honey bee queen, is moved from a comb to a queen cell cup at the Strachan Apiaries in Yuba City. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Grafting

GRAFTING--The grafting procedure begins with a tiny egg. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Almost Finished

FUTURE QUEEN BEES--This frame shows queen cups tended by worker bees at the Strachan Apiaries in Yuba City. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Close-up

CLOSE-UP PHOTO shows queen cells. They're being held here by Susan Cobey, bee breeder-geneticist at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. She teaches a popular class, "The Art of Queen Bee Rearing" and also an advanced instrumental insemination class. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Queen Bee and Her Retinue

QUEEN BEE and her retinue at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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