Want Info: Creating New Tomato Plants from Cuttings?

[grrlgeek]

I'm hoping that hendi_alex will see this post and share some wisdom. Or anyone else, for that matter, who has done this. I saw Alex post in another thread about "rebooting" a diseased plant with a healthy new plant started from a cutting, and that got me to thinking.

I have a couple plants that have an ugly-yellow-spot leaf issue. Not a huge deal at this point. They're making healthy-looking tomatoes and I have been snipping off the leaves as I go along. I have a bottle of copper fungicide, and even carried it out there one day, but I resisted the temptation to spray without really knowing what was going on. I'll post some pics some day in another thread about that. None of my A-List "I must eat one of these tomatoes" is affected, but should that happen....

Anyway, what I'm more interested in knowing, is whether starting a new plant from a cutting would work on a Determinate variety and get the plant to sort of, start over, and make another round of tomatoes. I have a couple of determinates, with relatively lots of awesome-looking tomatoes coming... but I am already bummed that I only have one or two plants of each, and when they're done they're done.

Where does one take the cutting from? Do you just put it in potting mix? Does a whole new plant grow from that, and does it make another round of tomatoes, even if it's Determinate?

[hendi_alex]

I've never made a cutting from a determinate but would be surprised if it didn't work. Either pinch a sucker near the crotch or cut about 4-5 inches of tip growth just below a node. I place mine in good quality potting soil, and place the container in filtered light keeping constantly moist. The cutting should root in about 7-10 days. I've read and my experience verifies that there are no truly determinate tomatoes. Determinate tomatoes, if they live long enough, will make a secondary crop. This leads me to believe that cuttings would perform as well for them as with indeterminate or so called semi determinate varieties.

[grrlgeek]

Alex,

Thank you so much for the reply! I am going to try this and see what happens. I am also going to see if I can keep the mama plants going. Never can have too many tomatoes!

[valley]

Hi, This is the first year I've started from cuttings and they are determinate. They've rooted well and the blossoms haven't fallen off. I started with 4 different heirloom tomatoes. Very happy with the results.

Richard

[JayPoc]

I've had good success doing this a couple ways (amazing, I never knew they grew from cuttings until I found this board).

Way 1: make your cutting, place the cutting in a beer bottle (or similar container) with a WEAK fertilizer solution. Keep it semi-shaded and keep the water filled up to the top. After a handful of days, you'll see plenty of little rootlets. Plant in soil and you're good to go. I usually plant them in a solo cup and let them really get established before going into the ground with them.

Way 2 (tried this for the first time this year, and it worked perfectly): Make your cutting. Put the cutting into potting mix in a solo cup, and water VERY well. Keep it semi shaded and well watered. It looked sort of limp but alive for about 4 days, but the "limpness" has passed and it's clear the tomato is growing on its own now. The one I used this year wasn't even a "sucker" or low growing "hairy" stem, and it worked just the same.

[tomc]

At the joint between stem and leaf, often tomato make the start of roots. If your does you are more than half way home on air layering a tomato. See earlier posts in this thread.