Surprising epigenetic tomato research

[Woody Gardener]

I found this article to be fascinating as I'm selecting for plants that grow productively in poor soil, heat, and drought.

Researchers Surprised After They Graft Tomato Plants With Epigenetically-Modified Rootstock
Novel grafted plants — consisting of rootstock epigenetically modified to “believe” it has been under stress — joined to an unmodified scion, or above-ground shoot, give rise to progeny that are more vigorous, productive, and resilient than the parental plants.

https://scitechdaily.com/researchers-surprised-after-they-graft-tomato-plants-with-epigenetically-modified-rootstock/

[William S.]

35% increase in productivity is impressive.

I'm getting more and more successful volunteerism with tomatoes the further I get in my tomato breeding projects. The genetics and epigenetics have got to be adjusting to my climate.

Edit:
Though I greatly wonder how much stress it takes to stress a tomato plant to unlock epigenetics. It's hard to know if it's happened or not.