Since I’ve been showing off my grafted tomatoes, I guess I’d better share what the Master Gardeners are going to be doing in the Demonstration Garden for tomatoes this year!

We are going to be planting a whole bed to heirloom tomatoes to see if the tomato grafting improves the yield and resistance to nematodes in our garden. We’ll be planting the tomatoes 24″ apart and we’ll use the stake & weave system rather than cages.

We’ll have 6 grafted heirloom plants and 6 non-grafted heirloom plants. There will be 3 varieties, with 2 plants of each in both the grafted and the non-grafted part of the demonstration. We chose 3 different heirlooms, with one of the main factors in the variety selection being how many days to harvest. We wanted varieties that were earlier maturing in case we have another summer like this past summer!

3 responses to “More Garden Planning: Grafted Tomato Demonstration”

  1. Cynthia Avatar

    So the reason to graft tomatoes is to increase disease resistance?

    By the way, you might want to consider getting some seeds from Arkansas Traveller tomatoes – my favorite heirloom for Kansas weather conditions. It continues setting fruit long after others have quit when the weather gets hot, it drought tolerant, and the tomatoes are delicious.

    1. Rebecca Avatar

      Yes, the primary reason is to provide disease/nematode resistance. The secondary reason is that we hope to provide more vigor and yield for the heirloom varieties. I did think about the Arkansas Traveler…maybe we’ll grow that one next time.

  2. Tomato Grafting – Attempt 2 « The Demo Garden Blog Avatar

    […] April 7, 2011 by Rebecca This morning a bunch of the Master Gardeners joined me in getting some tomatoes grafted for our Demonstration Garden this summer. (For the low down on why we’re grafting and more details, check out this post, this post, and this post.) […]

Leave a reply to Cynthia Cancel reply


The Sedgwick County Extension Master Gardeners’ Demonstration Garden is on the grounds of the Sedgwick County Extension Education Center.

Come see what’s growing in our gardens!
7001 W 21st Street N
Wichita, KS 67205


Stay updated on what’s happening in the garden.

Join 234 other subscribers