Tomato Rootstck

Steve

I do remember an article in the New Yorker about someone who grafted a tomato plant onto locoweed rootstock. The locoweed toxin ended up in the tomatoes to the health detriment of the man's family.

Bill

-- Ferme le Bush

Loco weed also known as jimson weed is related to nightshade plants such as tomatoes or tobacco. IIRC, it was done as a lark. Check out the Annals of Medicine in the New Yorker of at least 30 years ago.

Bill

-- Ferme le Bush

Berton Roueche in his book "The Medical Detectives" [Washington Square Press 1982] wrote of a case from October 28, 1963 in Caney Valley Tennessee where 5 people became weirdly ill after eating a tomato that was grown on a tomato plant grated onto a Jimson weed. The grower was trying to produce a late frost-resistant tomato. Which it was, but it nearly killed him. Jimson weed, like tomatoes and Irish potatoes and nightshade are all members of Solanaceae.

His book is derived from his columns "Annals of Medicine" in the New Yorker, and the original column was from 1965.

Well done, Bill! I just happened to have the book on the shelf so I could look it up, but you remembered the name of the column, the periodical and nearly the right decade!

David.

Salm> >

Sounds like a bareroot to me- you get a root with a stem sticking out of it, and you stick it into some dirt, and the stem makes a plant. I grew my tarragon this way. Never heard of growing tomatoes like this, but who knows?

What catalog was this in?

Tomato root stock is high resistant tomato plant or their seeds. Tomato plant grafting widely practiced in Asia with Japan being a leader. Two of the most popular are Maxifort and Beaufort. Check out this link to learn more: https widely ://

JEM

I'm pretty sure I saw the tomato rootstock thing in a Johnny's Selected Seeds catalog.