Grafting Eggplant on Tomato Roots: Forum Results & Photos

On 1/11/2021 at 12:23 AM, Aleksan9ra said:
There is no real point grafting regular tomatoes. But you can graft one tomato onto two root systems. We are actually planning to graft eggplants onto standard tomato roots to dodge wilt and get them into the greenhouse earlier.

Grafting eggplant onto tomato roots definitely got my attention. I am sick and tired of battling eggplant wilt every single summer. Every season I swear I will never plant them again, but store-bought eggplants cannot hold a candle to homegrown fruit. Time to hit the internet and read up. Lyudmila, I will be matching my sowing calendar to yours!

On 1/11/2021 at 6:32 PM, Wera said:
I will be matching my sowing calendar to yours!

Vera, following my lead is risky business, this is my first rodeo with grafting! I honestly have zero idea how it will turn out. But we have plenty of time to scour forums, listen to tips, and figure it out.

Right now, I have tomato sowing penciled in for February 3, and for rootstock I plan to use Pink Bush. I have a ton of spare seeds, so if things go sideways, no big loss.

Morning, ladies! There is plenty of information out there, but all the video guides feel pretty amateur. Was hoping to see how commercial greenhouse pros pull it off, but no luck so far.

Now I am sitting here second-guessing the timing. Does it really make sense to start this early, and why do guides suggest sowing tomato rootstocks first when tomatoes outgrow eggplants by a mile? Did I get that backwards?

On 1/13/2021 at 9:56 AM, Aleksan9ra said:
Does it really make sense to start this early, and why do guides suggest sowing tomato rootstocks first…

Morning everyone! 🤝

Lyudmila, for my setup I decided eggplants go into the dirt first. While they take their sweet time sprouting and spreading their seed leaves, I wait until the first true leaf shows before sowing tomatoes. What rootstock habit works best though: a vigorous indeterminate or a stocky determinate?

In his videos, Medvedev grafts well-established, thick seedlings.

Irina, watched those Medvedev clips too. My main takeaway was just get them growing first, and we can find the right window for grafting once they have size. We definitely need extra backup seedlings on both sides, staggered across multiple dates to see what caliper matches up best. For rootstock, I want to test a determinate hybrid, and for an indeterminate, maybe Lucky Captain. It is an absolute tank and brushes off disease like nothing.

On 1/13/2021 at 9:56 AM, Aleksan9ra said:
Did I get that backwards?

In the video, they definitely started the eggplants first 🤔

On 1/13/2021 at 11:16 AM, Nelli said:
In the video, they definitely started the eggplants first.

Thanks, Nelli. Watched so many clips my head is spinning. Just read an article on Farmer.ru where the author insisted eggplants must be seeded a full two weeks ahead of tomatoes, and you graft the second the tomatoes pop out of the dirt.

On 1/13/2021 at 11:49 AM, Aleksan9ra said:
…eggplants must be seeded a full two weeks ahead of tomatoes and as soon as tomatoes emerge, graft immediately.

Sowing Schedules & Stem Caliper Matching

Seems to me it all comes down to the specific variety or hybrid. Some seedlings come out like thin toothpicks, others come out fat and stocky. Which one makes a better rootstock? My eggplants germinated very unevenly 🤷 Let’s ask Marin@M. Paging Marina!

Most cherry tomato lines run quite spindly in the stem.

On 1/13/2021 at 11:55 AM, Tatunya said:
Most cherry tomato lines run quite spindly in the stem.

Tanya, cherries feel like a total mismatch for this, way too thin.

On 1/13/2021 at 11:55 AM, Tatunya said:
Let’s ask Marin@M…

Right here! 🙋

Afternoon, everyone!

Are we talking stem thickness for grafting tomato rootstocks? Originally, I was aiming for a beefsteak line, but Ninulya mentioned that vigorous cherry varieties make killer rootstocks too. Outside of Summer Sun, I do not grow cherries, so I will test that one out.

For eggplants, I decided to pair the grafting right with potting up, once they show 1 to 2 pairs of true leaves. Stems will be stockier and tougher, and it saves shocking the roots twice. I will also gently shake the potting mix off both root systems before cutting. That makes joining them infinitely easier without snapping the scion head right above the cut. Both seedlings are then potted side-by-side in parallel.

Just watched that first video link from Tatunya, honestly baffled how someone grows seedlings that pale and starved over 80 days. Trying to graft those fragile things without decapitating them is a miracle. Stopped watching right there!

Dug through my garden logs: grafted Aragorn onto Wes on April 21. Nothing was planned out, both were sitting in small 3.5 oz (100 ml) starter cups intended for a friend, but stayed behind. Moving forward, a tomato rootstock needs serious structural bone. Looking at what I had in the greenhouse, Verace stood out above everything.

On 1/13/2021 at 11:55 AM, Tatunya said:
Most cherry tomato lines run quite spindly in the stem.

Summer Sun is the big exception, that thing is an absolute monster with a tree trunk for a stem.

On 1/13/2021 at 12:57 PM, Marin@M said:
…honestly baffled how someone grows seedlings that pale and starved over 80 days…

😁 Looked familiar, had sad spindly seedlings like that years back! Surprised to see folks grafting older plants though. Tongue approach makes sense, but Valeriy straight up chopped the heads off. Looks terrifying 🙈

On 1/13/2021 at 3:09 PM, Tatunya said:
…straight up chopped the heads off…

Chopping heads clean off takes steady surgical hands and practice. Tongue approach gives you a massive safety net. Squash and cukes are way easier because their stems are thick and juicy, I did those with simple side approach cuts.

On 1/13/2021 at 4:59 PM, Marin@M said:
Squash and cukes are way easier…

Not always, squash stems are hollow inside, so you have to know what you are doing. Blew my first attempt at hole-insertion grafting because of that. Cukes, never bothered, mine crop like crazy without disease anyway. Plus someone mentioned grafting changes fruit taste, and flavor is king for me since I do not can with vinegar 🥒

On 1/13/2021 at 7:09 PM, Tatunya said:
Eggplants, I just want to plant fewer vines, pull a bigger harvest, and dodge root diseases.

Right there with you, Tanya. I just want to put in 6 solid plants, and if they do not succumb to wilt, that will keep our kitchen loaded all summer.

Also snagged dedicated rootstock for watermelons to experiment with.

Trimming tomato totals down to 40 vines this year, which frees up an entire greenhouse. In that open space, I will run 4 cucumbers, 20 sweet peppers, 6 eggplants, 3 watermelons, and 3 cantaloupes. Should fit nicely.

On 1/13/2021 at 7:51 PM, Aleksan9ra said:
In that open space, I will run 4 cucumbers, 20 sweet peppers, 6 eggplants, 3 watermelons, and 3 cantaloupes.

Eggplants under greenhouse cover can easily grow taller than you! 😁 Do not forget spider mite defense, you know how they love eggplants.

Tanya, will keep foliage misted. Mites hit me hard late last summer. Moving them into a different high tunnel this season, though mites probably do not care where they are.

Found an academic paper by Dr. V. Kravchenko on eggplant grafting, and he argues tomatoes must be sown 5 to 7 days earlier than eggplants.

Morning folks! I really liked Medvedev’s routine: soak eggplant seeds in kelp or biostimulant first, sow into a shallow 2 in (5 cm) flat spaced 1 in (2-3 cm) apart, letting them sit there until grafting day. Sow small-fruited indeterminate tomatoes 7 to 10 days later. Pot up tomato rootstocks into 1 qt (1 L) pots at first true leaf stage. Once they hit 3 to 4 true leaves, graft the eggplants using a 45-degree angle splice cut.

Eggplants crawl early on though. Shouldn’t we wait to start tomatoes until eggplants have actually sprouted? Eggplants take over a week to pop, while tomato seed pops in 3 days flat.

Another guide on Greeninfo says sow both simultaneously. In their photos, tomatoes have two true leaves while eggplants are still in cotyledons, doing a flat splice cut. Wondering if grafting tiny seedlings gives better callus formation? My eggplant seedlings always run thinner and slower than tomatoes.

Eggplants are tough to graft, watermelons are a walk in the park by comparison. Tiny micro-seedlings are nearly impossible to align at the vascular cambium, and grafting clips just crush them or slide right off. Tried 10 plants two seasons in a row at that tiny stage and got zero takes.

With older plants at 4 to 5 true leaves, I finally succeeded, though take rate was still around 30%.

On 1/15/2021 at 9:23 AM, Yulena said:
With older plants at 4-5 leaves, take rate was still around 30%.

Elena, what is your sowing gap between tomatoes and eggplants? Out in the dirt garden beds, eggplants flop completely for me, and inside the greenhouse, spider mites devour them. But I refuse to give up on them. Grafting is my last hope.

Came up with my own work-around for mismatched stems: my tomato rootstocks were beefy, 2 to 2.5 times thicker than the eggplant scions.

Beheaded the tomato roughly 0.8 in (2 cm) above the seed leaves, carved a clean V-shaped cleft notch down the center with a fresh razor, and wedged in the eggplant scion (also topped above cotyledons and sharpened like a wedge). Slipped on a clip, bagged the pot with clear plastic. Those plants healed up great!

Logic says eggplants should start first since they crawl in cool rooms without supplemental grow lights. Sowing eggplants February 9, along with early determinate tomatoes. Then on February 17, sowing main-crop tomatoes. Come March, I will cherry-pick whichever tomato seedlings match stem calipers best.

Grafting Hacks: Cleft, Pin & Foil Collars

Lyudmila, love reading your journals, learning so much from the sidelines! Wanted to chip in on grafting clips. Had to graft a ton of mismatched stems last year, thick and thin, and only owned one clip size.

Used regular kitchen aluminum foil folded 3 to 4 layers thick.

For thick stems, a foil collar prevents the clip from pinching the stem shut:

And for paper-thin stems where the clip would slide off, wrapped foil around the joint to bulk it up:

Slid a bamboo skewer through the clip loop for stability.

Hey folks! Grafted eggplants two years running onto saved F2 hybrid tomato seeds.

2018 notes: soaked eggplants and Vitador F2 tomato rootstock on February 13.
2020 notes: soaked eggplants and Shady Lady F2 tomato seeds on February 13.

Grafted around March 16 using tongue approach or side-wedge graft.

Svetlana, what happened next? How did they crop?

Seedlings turned into massive horses indoors, setting first blooms before planting out into covered tunnels.

Zero wilt issues, 100% protection there. Yields were hit and miss depending on eggplant variety, had some great runs and a few duds. Not entirely sure what caused the yield variation.

Edited January 18, 2021 by Svetlana-Kr

On 1/18/2021 at 3:56 PM, Svetlana-Kr said:
2020 notes: soaked eggplants and Shady Lady F2 seeds Feb 13. Grafted March 16.

So both varieties soaked on the exact same date, grafted a month later via tongue approach. Meaning they shared both root systems for a bit before severing the eggplant roots, just like with watermelons?

Spot on for tongue approach. If doing side wedge, severed the top immediately and kept the plant under a humidity baggie. Exactly the same playbook as watermelons.

Folks, was getting geared up to graft eggplants onto tomatoes, then looked at my logs and realized in my garden, I should graft tomatoes onto eggplants instead! My eggplants only explode with growth if stepped up into 0.8 gal (3 L) containers early. Confining them to 1 qt (1 L) pots leaves me with 3 sad eggplants per vine.

Been scouring French gardening forums on grafting. Consensus over here is sowing eggplants 7 to 10 days before tomato rootstock. Going to test vigorous cherry lines as rootstocks.

Set hybrid tomato seeds on damp towels to germinate, and soaked eggplant seeds simultaneously to guarantee a broad selection of stem sizes.

Calling on the hive mind! Grafting eggplants onto tomatoes: have hybrid seeds of Voyage, Sweet Cherry, Tolstoy, Pink Paradise, and saved Cornabel F2. Which one would make the best rootstock?

Saved seeds from Cornabel F2, no question! I always run saved seeds from hybrid vigor crosses as rootstock.

Ladies, what is the actual point of grafting eggplants onto tomatoes?

I have tested tomato-on-tomato grafting in northern latitudes and it yielded zero extra poundage. Grafting tomatoes only makes sense down south where root-knot nematodes wipe out crops. What does grafting eggplant give you up here? 🤠

Alexander, eggplants have delicate root systems that despise cold soil and collapse from verticillium wilt. Tomato root systems are cold-tolerant bulldogs that bypass wilt, fire up early vegetative growth, and produce double the fruit! 📝

First batch was a complete failure. Looked fine inside the humidity tote, but wilted instantly once exposed to ambient room air. The stems were mismatched, tomato rootstocks were way too thick.

Second batch done 10 days later went smoother. Used cleft graft and hole-insertion (pin) graft. The 45-degree angle splice cut failed because the stem calipers did not match up.

Used soft 0.08 in (2 mm) interior-diameter silicone tubing, slit open on one side. Sourced them from fishing tackle listings on AliExpress, thick walls and very flexible.

When calipers do not match, slant cuts fail. Cleft or pin grafts are the only way to save a mismatched graft.

Healing Chamber Care & Monster Root Results

Evening folks! Grafted eggplants on tomatoes February 16. Four days in now. Poked small pinholes in the baggie yesterday to clear heavy condensation.

What is the next step? Hard to see through the foggy plastic, but they are standing upright. Will they rot from excessive moisture? Seedling stems were barely 0.04 in (1 mm) thick.

Galina, be patient! Healing takes time. You will know the graft took once the scion begins pushing fresh green growth from the growing tip. Then you can slowly harden them off to room air. If condensation is excessive, snip the bag corners. Just do not overwater the roots while they heal under the dome.

Held my first batch inside a sealed 1.3 gal (5 L) clear tote for 10 days. Saturated humidity and spindly stems caused nearly all of them to damp off.

Second batch spent only 5 to 6 days under the plastic dome with the lid cracked slightly. Condensation was far lower. Out of 10 grafts, 2 tomatoes and 3 eggplants took cleanly. They have been uncovered under LED shop lights for days now, and leaves are sizing up nicely.

Crucial rule: keep fresh grafts entirely out of direct sunlight while the cambium heals. Room temperature needs to stay warm, around 72-77°F (22-25°C).

Keep them under grow lights! When decapitating the rootstock top, every graft gets bagged individually, aired out twice daily, then cracked open at the base before discarding the bag. Misted the inside walls of the bag, never directly onto leaves.

If grafting with the tongue approach, no humidity dome is needed since both plants keep their native root systems intact.

Five survivors right now: three eggplants and two tomatoes out of 15 grafts. Removed the slit tubing today, slipped right off.

Left image shows eggplant cleft-grafted onto tomato; right image shows tomato-on-tomato splice graft where stem diameters matched up perfectly:

Grafting slightly older seedlings with 0.12-0.16 in (3-4 mm) stems was ten times easier. Tomato rootstocks had about 4 true leaves, eggplants had 2 to 3.

Foil was frustrating and clumsy with spinning stems. Switched over to breathable micropore medical adhesive tape. Much better hold!

Eggplants were 30 days old (King of the North), tomatoes were 21-22 days old. Trimmed off lower foliage, leaving two true leaves and the central growing point to lower transpiration stress.

Lifted the dome on my February 23 grafts. Interestingly, the tomato rootstocks are pushing aerial roots all over the stem. High humidity triggers that every time.

Clean horizontal cut held with double-thick foil and a clothespin worked wonders when slippery stems refused to cooperate with cleft cuts:

Unwrapped the foil today, looks like my grafts took! Yesterday tried 5 hole-insertion pin grafts using toothpicks to pierce the tomato stem. Loved that method since tomato stems were thicker than eggplants.

Hole-insertion requires a very gentle touch with the toothpick, or the stock stem splits in two. Tomato stem needs to be at least 0.12 in (3 mm). Cutting the eggplant above its cotyledons gives insurance, if the graft fails, the scion stub branches out fresh suckers.

Leaving the cotyledons intact on the tomato rootstock gives the plant extra vitality while healing. Just make sure to rub out suckers sprouting from those tomato nodes.

My cleft graft pulled through cleanly! Secured the union using Teflon plumber’s tape wrapped alongside a toothpick brace:

Grafted 6 eggplants using the toothpick hole-insertion technique. Zero clips, zero tape, holds together by friction alone. Bagged the pot over a chopstick support.

Did 6 cleft grafts on March 4, and 4 are already actively sizing up!

Updated photos. Total of 9 grafted eggplants and 2 grafted tomatoes:

Hole-insertion is miles ahead in simplicity. Cut the tomato below seed leaves, pencil-sharpened the eggplant scion, and slid medical IV drip tubing over the joint. Incredible fit, zero clips needed. 8 plants sitting in a shared tray under a dome.

Tanya, one of my grafts without cotyledons rotted right at the root collar. The graft union had healed, but the roots died off beforehand. The graft where I preserved the tomato cotyledons is flourishing!

Careful with bright spring sunlight hitting the healing chambers, cooked a flat earlier before scrambling to mist them down.

Horizontal splice cuts showed virtually zero transplant stall, already keeping pace with ungrafted controls:

Noticed adventitious roots bursting right at soil level. Did I bury the stem too deep?

Galina, never bury the graft union! You need at least 0.5 in (1 cm) of tomato rootstock stem clearance above the soil line. If damp potting mix touches the eggplant scion above the graft, the eggplant shoots its own roots straight into the dirt. Once that happens, it bypasses the tomato rootstock entirely, destroying all disease resistance. Just like fruit trees!

Side-by-side growth comparison with Bibo eggplant sown on the same day:
1. Left: Non-grafted control.
2. Center: Grafted early, at the tiny 2-leaf stage.
3. Right: Grafted 9 days later, at 4 true leaves.

Grafting at the younger 2-leaf stage was fiddly, but healed much faster and suffered far less transplant shock than older, woodier seedlings.

April 22 check-in. The grafted eggplants are absolute powerhouses!

Root development is completely unmatched, look at the root system on that tomato stock compared to the native eggplant roots:

Canopy comparisons:

Non-grafted controls:

Grafted onto tomato:

Used the weakest, runtiest eggplant seedlings for the grafts, and now they have completely caught up and surpassed the best non-grafted controls. Stepping up from 1 pt (0.5 L) to 1 qt (1 L) pots today!