Grafting for Disease Resistance and Increased Productivity

Researchers around the world have demonstrated that grafting can protect plants against a variety of soil-borne diseases in various climates and conditions. Grafting has been successfully implemented in many countries to battle diseases such as Verticillium and Fusarium wilt, corky root rot and bacterial wilt, among others. Along with maintaining high fruit quality, tomato grafting can also help overcome abiotic stressors, such as high salinity, excess moisture and soil temperature extremes, even allowing the extension of the growing season.


SARE has a new fact sheet, Tomato Grafting for Disease Resistance and Increased Productivity, that helps farmers and agricultural educators learn how to graft tomatoes to fight disease and improve the health and vigor of tomato crops.


Growers interested in experimenting with this novel approach of improving resistance to soil-borne pathogens will find:


• Helpful tips for grafting plants, including variety selection based on
resistance to particular diseases, step-by-step grafting techniques and caring
for grafted plants;

• Instructions for building a healing chamber for newly grafted plants, and for
transplanting them to the field;

• An analysis of the economic viability of grafting under different conditions.


Still a relatively uncommon practice in the United States, researchers around
the world have demonstrated that grafting can protect plants against a variety of soil-borne fungal, bacterial, viral and nematode diseases, such as Verticillium and Fusarium wilt (FW), corky root rot, root-knot nematodes, bacterial wilt, southern blight and other diseases.


Grafting is on the rise in the United States, since it has been shown to successfully manage bacterial wilt in tomatoes, even in severely infested soils.


In western North Carolina, for example, a resistant rootstock was used to reduce bacterial wilt in tomatoes: At season's end, nearly 90 percent of the control plants died while 100 percent of the grafted plants not only survived, but their yield was more than two fold that of the surviving non-grafted plants.


Want more information? See the related SARE grant(s) GS05-046, Inducing Disease Resistance and Increased Production in Organic Heirloom Tomato Production Through Grafting, GS07-060, Potential of grafting to improve nutrient management of heirloom tomatoes on organic farms, LS06-193, Grafting Rootstocks onto Heirloom and Locally Adapted Tomato Selections to Confer Resistance to Root-knot Nematodes and other Soil Borne Diseases and to Increase Nutrient Uptake Efficiency in an Intensive Farming System for Market Gardeners, and OS09-046, Grafting Heirloom Tomatoes on Disease Resistant Rootstock in Western North Carolina.

Go to SARE's Learning Center for these and other publications.
http://bit.ly/uoHJOT

SARE Report: Breaking into Organic Hops with Blue Ridge Hops

Check out the report below on local, organic hops producers Rita and John from Blue Ridge Hops in Madison County. In 2009 the couple received a Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) grant to help them with their 1/2 acre hops yard.

Breaking into Organic Hops Production

To learn more about Southern SARE grants click here.

Producer Grants Available for Sustainable Agriculture

GRIFFIN, Georgia – Calls for Proposals for the 2012 Producer Grants, intended for farmers/ranchers and farmer/rancher organizations throughout the Southern region, are now available from the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE) program.

Proposal submission deadline is 11:59 Eastern Standard Time on Nov. 15, 2011. Announcement of grants will take place in February 2012.

Producer Grants are used to conduct projects that solve problems farmers face and to develop information on what works and what doesn’t so that other farmers and ranchers facing those same problems can benefit from the results of the funded project. The grants are not designed to pay a farmer to farm. They are designed to take some of the financial risk away from trying a solution.

Projects may be funded for up to two years for a project maximum of $10,000 for an individual producer or $15,000 for a producer organization. Producer organizations should be comprised primarily of farmers/ranchers and must have a majority farmer representation on their governing board.

Log on to http://www.southernsare.org/Grants/Apply-for-a-Grant to download the current Calls for Proposal. The Calls for Proposal includes application information, program priorities, use of funds, proposal submission instructions, and contact information. Be sure to carefully follow the information in the Calls for Proposals when submitting your grant. Failure to follow the submission guidelines may result in your proposal being rejected.

Focus areas for Producer Grants include beneficial insect habitat, alternative crops/livestock, organic agriculture, sustainable marketing products, sustainable grazing systems, soil organic matter, building/protection/management, increasing sustainability of existing farming practices, appropriate technology and agroforestry/water quality.

SARE is a competitive grants program funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to promote research and education about sustainable agriculture. Southern SARE is administered by a host consortium consisting of the University of Georgia, Fort Valley State University and the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Oklahoma.

For more information on Southern SARE, log on to http://www.southernsare.org, follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/southernsare, or fan us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/southsare.