Growing tomatoes from suckers

[Brettmm92]

Hey,

I grew from makeshift greenhouse to row several varieties of tomato both determinate and indeterminate. My plan is to get a continual supply by snagging the suckers, putting them in water for a week or so in a shady spot and then add them to my rows for hopefully continuous tomatoes. I'm hoping that this will work flawlessly, but does anyone on here actually know anything about it? I'm hoping a sucker will produce just as if it was a transplanted plant but with minimal time invested.

Thanks ahead of time!

[Gary350]

Why use only suckers? Cut the limbs from a tomato plant you can root all the limbs and have dozens of new tomato plants in a week. I bought a $6 bottle of Rooting Whoremone yesterday at Lowe's it gives you a higher success rate. .

[applestar]

This will work for indeterminates. Not so sure about determinate varieties.

Also, depending on where you live, disease and pest pressure increases significantly as the season progresses, and it becomes difficult to grow tender, younger plants that are closer to the ground, especially ones that do not have the root system to vigorously grow ahead of the leaf loss and remain healthy... by the same token, I suspect the plants won’t start to produce well until the roots grow sufficiently to support fruit growth? In addition, intense heat can shut down production and some varieties will not recover.

[jal_ut]

Hey, ya just gotta try something. See how it goes. Have fun!

[Vanisle_BC]

Hey, ya just gotta try something. See how it goes. Have fun!

Agreed but I'm puzzled - how would planting & growing-out suckers extend the harvest; won't the parents keep producing till end of season anyway? Mine do, and the last, green fruits can ripen indoors, on or off the pulled plants.

Maybe the idea is to get extra plants late-season, too late to start from seed?

[Brettmm92]

Gary, I actually have some of that root powder but haven't used it because my technique for planting suckers has been to place them in a bottle of water for a week or so until the roots form. And by limb do you mean the part with just leaves on them?

Applestar, that's all good to know. I'll keep that in mind and wait until decent roots establish. I'd hate to sacrifice some of my determinate on a gamble that it even works to make a new plant. I guess I'll google around.

And I like your style Jal_ut

Vanisle, Your right I absolutely do want extra plants late-season but I also have some determinate that I'm hoping I can sucker up. One in particular called Green Sausage.

[applestar]

It’s fine to start the roots in water but make sure to plant in fresh potting mix in containers to establish the root system unless you are growing hydroponically. (I don’t think you are?)

Water roots and air/soil(potting mix) roots are different. And if you only allow water roots to grow, then they will be set back when planted in ground since they will have to grow different kind of roots and will be vulnerable under stress.

[Brettmm92]

Applestar, I had no idea about the difference in root growth with water and soil. How would you go about starting the sucker? And no, I'm not fancey enough for hydroponics
This season, for most of my plants, I've dug into the N.C. clay as to almost make a hole the size of a small pot, and put a basic potting soil mix of 1 part of compost, peat moss and vermiculite in hopes of creating a solid "home base" that holds onto water. So far so good but I don't have anything to compare it with to see if it's worth it. Does anyone else use this technique? And do you think a sucker would transplant into that without soaking it in water first?