North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["ADAMSON, Karl" <Karl.Adamson@apvma.gov.au>]

Hi All,
Well, eggplant is technically a fruit...

This year I started experimenting with two frost tolerant solanum as
rootstocks for eggplant to give them a push along in the early spring.
I've used two rootstock S. mauritanum and S. linearifolium.  The
mauritanum grafts are as good and vigorous as commercial hybrid grown
eggplant.  But the rootstock starts getting damaged a 20F, which is a
bit tender for my climate.  The linearifolium is a lot hardier (to at
least 14F for short periods) but my take on the linearifolium rootstock
is greatly hampered by extreme callus outgrowth. Using two leaf seedling
scions and bark grafting I can get thumbnail sized callus outgrowth
which I'm assuming is the reason they are not taking well.

Given the scion is so tender I'm really after ideas on how I can reduce
the callusing while maintaining humidity to the scion. All scions are
field grafted and the graft is sealed in a plastic bag and then covered
with something to shade them (newspaper, alfoil or a pot).  The bags are
allowed to breath after two weeks and removed a few days later while the
tape is removed after the graft starts growing vigorously.

Your thoughts are appreciated.

Karl
Canberra, Australia


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