Conducted under the SNV-led CHAIN project funded by the Swiss Development Corporation (SDC), the workshop brought together 45 participants (10 women & 35 men) to learn how to graft tomato and when to apply the method.

“Cambodia will be a dot on the map of tomato grafting activity starting from today!” said WorldVeg researcher Willie Chen to participants in a tomato grafting workshop on 23 August 2017 at the Provincial Department of Agriculture Fishery and Forestry (PDAFF) office in Stung Treng province.

Conducted under the SNV-led CHAIN project funded by the Swiss Development Corporation (SDC), the workshop brought together 45 participants (10 women & 35 men) to learn how to graft tomato and when to apply the method.

The World Vegetable Center provides capacity building for CHAIN partners (public, private and NGOs) that deliver vegetable production techniques to homestead and commercial farmers and farmer groups in Kratie, Stung Treng, Preah Vihear and Oddar Meanchey provinces of Cambodia.

Grafting was not originally included in the CHAIN project, but, because of the sudden appearance of bacterial wilt disease in tomato in some of the target provinces, a a training of trainers (ToT) workshop on the method was added into the third year of project activities toward the end of the phase 1. Seed of three newly identified bacterial wilt resistant eggplant rootstocks were multiplied for this training course as well as for use during training in phase 2.

Grafted tomato can overcome the problem of soil-borne diseases such as bacterial wilt, Fusarium wilt, and root-knot nematode, and may overcome waterlogging problems during rainy seasons. Yield and quality improvement are also expected with good scion/rootstock combinations and management practices.

Participants raised many questions at the beginning of the workshop. “They were keen to know every detail about tomato grafting,” Willie said. “‘What are the benefits of grafting?’ ‘How to screen rootstocks?’ ‘Which soil-borne diseases can be managed?’”

“There were so many questions, I had to stop them and told them that each of their questions would be answered in my presentation,” said Willie. His slides and videos demonstrated step-by-step how to graft tomato.

After the method was clearly explained, the participants practiced cutting rubber tubes and grafting tomato seedlings. Hundreds of tomato scion seedlings and eggplant rootstock seedlings were provided for practice.

Prior to the hands-on grafting practice, the group built a grafting chamber to fit 10 seedling trays. Space (2 m x 2.5 m) under a mango tree was selected for the chamber. Bamboo was cut into strips and used to form arches for the frame. The arches were stabilized by horizontal girders. Bamboo arches and girders were tied with plastic string to secure the structure. The bamboo frame was covered with one layer of clear plastic sheeting and two layers of shade net (30% shade). The floor was covered with wood boards to raise the seedling trays off the ground and prevent direct contact with soil.

In the final step, the ground soil was watered to raise the relative humidity of the air in the chamber, and grafted seedlings were placed in the chamber to be evaluated under field conditions.

Story: Willie Chen and Srinivasan Ramasamy

Photos: Willie Chen