Are grafted veggies the ‘it plant’ of 2013?

Recently interest in grafted vegetables has skyrocketed making us wonder if it’s expected to be the hottest gardening trend this year. 

Recently interest in grafted vegetables has skyrocketed making us wonder if it’s expected to be the hottest gardening trend this year. 

Huff Post Home recently reported that a plant that grows both tomatoes and potatoes was trending on Reddit, sparking some serious discussion about the possibilities of merging different plants.

According to the eHow article, “How to graft tomatoes onto potatoes,” which started the discussion:

Although a potato and a tomato cannot be cross-bred, it is possible to graft together a tomato plant shoot to the rootstock of a potato plant. The grafted plant will produce both tomatoes from the tomato shoot and potatoes from the rootstock. Grafting together the two plants can save you space in the garden and make a tomato plant grow that is not well suited for the soil in your garden. Be aware that the grafting together of the two plants can effect the taste of the fruit.

Although the commonly used term is vegetable grafting, the technique also applies to a variety of fruits (i.e., tomatoes and watermelons).

Vegetable grafting has been done in Asia for many years, but was only introduced to the U.S. about 20 years ago. The technique is still popular oversees, particularly in Korea and Japan where it was developed last century. An estimated 81% of Korean and 54% of Japanese vegetable cultivation uses grafting.

Now grafted vegetables are gaining popularity in the U.S., particularly with organic farmers.

Home gardeners also seem interested in exploring grafting techniques as it’s likely to increase the plant’s hardiness to various soils and can change the way a plant grows so that it is more compact and thus more suitable to a smaller urban environment.

We’re curious to see if grafted veggies become a standard in homegrown gardens this year.