Sounds like an interesting project. Have you done much grafting before? Getting a quality blade and maintaining it (or using disposable blades) is key. Grafting very young seedlings generally works better for mentor grafting (they seem to incorporate RNA/DNA/organelles from the root stock more readily). If you can time the grafting to happen in late summer/autumn then the young seedlings could be exposed to cold stress as they grow, which could provide extra selective pressure.
Cool, one thing i thought in my itch about the cold hardy perennial tomatoes was to do a similar breeding method between tomatoes and potatoes, since potatoes can be left under the ground and resprout also you could have a double crop, the technique was based on a different breeding also using grafting, basically whenever you graft two plants not only is genetic information shared between the two but at the graft point almost all genetic information is shared meaning that if you then take the small thin graft callous and grow it into a new plant it will be tomato genes+potato genes together, potato tubers left in the ground aren't that cold hardy though its all a matter of mulch but this technique of taking the grafting point could be used with tomatoes and goji berries too, you would need more breeding to make palatable fruits and cold hardiness but that could take a lot less time than miRNA transfer, my grafts never succeded but i have a big goji berry plant that wanted to reduce, (its not productive grows mostly leaves and stems and spreads asexually) and i might try grafting some tomatoes on it this year.
I dont want to write too much but here you can look somatic hybridization of tomatoes and potatoes (not great) not the same as hybridization by grafting but produces alnost the same result a polyploid plant with both genes
Anyway as you can see it might be possible to create a tomatoish plant that sheds its leaves in winter and regrowing in spring possibly allowing for large tomato plants to be ready and growing as soon as spring starts, you could do this with the cold hardy pepper capsicum flexuosum as well
I don't think anyone has used C. flexuosum as a mentor in scientific literature, but a quick search certainly shows that Capsicum can be mentor grafted, so I guess my response is, try it and see!
Mentor grafting is slightly different as we're looking to carry over the genetic material into the next generation. It's best done when the rootstock and the scion are both very young (sapling stage).
You perform the graft, keep things humid and in a dark place until the wound has healed (a week ish) and then reintroduce slowly to your target environment (probably windowsill or greenhouse for protection).
Still, if you don't graft the plants are a very young some genetic material will make its way across.
Sounds like an interesting project. Have you done much grafting before? Getting a quality blade and maintaining it (or using disposable blades) is key. Grafting very young seedlings generally works better for mentor grafting (they seem to incorporate RNA/DNA/organelles from the root stock more readily). If you can time the grafting to happen in late summer/autumn then the young seedlings could be exposed to cold stress as they grow, which could provide extra selective pressure.
Cool, one thing i thought in my itch about the cold hardy perennial tomatoes was to do a similar breeding method between tomatoes and potatoes, since potatoes can be left under the ground and resprout also you could have a double crop, the technique was based on a different breeding also using grafting, basically whenever you graft two plants not only is genetic information shared between the two but at the graft point almost all genetic information is shared meaning that if you then take the small thin graft callous and grow it into a new plant it will be tomato genes+potato genes together, potato tubers left in the ground aren't that cold hardy though its all a matter of mulch but this technique of taking the grafting point could be used with tomatoes and goji berries too, you would need more breeding to make palatable fruits and cold hardiness but that could take a lot less time than miRNA transfer, my grafts never succeded but i have a big goji berry plant that wanted to reduce, (its not productive grows mostly leaves and stems and spreads asexually) and i might try grafting some tomatoes on it this year.
I dont want to write too much but here you can look somatic hybridization of tomatoes and potatoes (not great) not the same as hybridization by grafting but produces alnost the same result a polyploid plant with both genes
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/250680170_Somatic_hybrid_plants_of_potato_and_tomato_regenerated_from_fused_protoplasts
And here an overview of hybridization by grafting, there are more sources you can find yourself though
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0065266006560031
Here hybrid between N. Tabacum N.Glauca to create new specie N.Tabauca: https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.3010
Anyway as you can see it might be possible to create a tomatoish plant that sheds its leaves in winter and regrowing in spring possibly allowing for large tomato plants to be ready and growing as soon as spring starts, you could do this with the cold hardy pepper capsicum flexuosum as well
Please keep me posted of your findings!
Do you know if anyone has tried this with Capsicum flexuosum as a mentor to breed larger cold hardy chili peppers?
I don't think anyone has used C. flexuosum as a mentor in scientific literature, but a quick search certainly shows that Capsicum can be mentor grafted, so I guess my response is, try it and see!
* https://www.dbpia.co.kr/Journal/articleDetail?nodeId=NODE01130063
* https://www.indianjournals.com/ijor.aspx?target=ijor:ar&volume=30&issue=4&article=002
Thank you! I’ll see if I can figure it out. I’ve never grafted before so this will be interesting…
Youtube has some decent videos on grafting chilis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HboWUnVX4ZQ
Mentor grafting is slightly different as we're looking to carry over the genetic material into the next generation. It's best done when the rootstock and the scion are both very young (sapling stage).
You perform the graft, keep things humid and in a dark place until the wound has healed (a week ish) and then reintroduce slowly to your target environment (probably windowsill or greenhouse for protection).
Still, if you don't graft the plants are a very young some genetic material will make its way across.