Can You Root Tomato Cuttings?

was curious as to whether or not this could be done. and when is the correct time to do it?

Ive heard that the best time for Tomatoes in FL is in the fall, so thought maybe I could root cuttings from an existing plant to have some for fall.

From my experiences, you can root tomato cuttings at any time, but remember to root it deep. The new plant you get from cutting is not likely to produce as good as a plant from seed. After a couple of experiments, now I only grow my tomato plants from seeds to get best result. Because in my limited planting space, every plant taking a spot has to have best performance. There is an exception though, an upside down tomato plant from cutting will live forever and also keeps on flowering and fruiting.

you mean to place it in an upside down planter? hm, I'll have to try that! Thanks for the info!

Hey Cue_chick! I'm rooting cuttings tomorrow! Select some nice, long, straight branches with no offshoots. You want a single stem. It should be about 12"-15" long. Get some Rootone @ WalMart and dip the tip of your shoot in it. Plant it as deep as you can up to the tip. Off into some bright shade (no direct sun). Pull off any blooms and developing maters. Water it in and keep potting mix moist. Godspeed and Good Harvest! Linda

Tomatoes are surely the easiest plant I've ever rooted. I rooted some in early May and now they have some nice fruit about half grown. The first week in July, I'll take some more cuttings off those and have them ready for plant out around August 1. That will take me to frost with almost continuous fresh tomatoes. I find that in my zone the indeterminates stop setting about the same time the determinates are finishing so I treat them all the same and just keep making new plants of the favorites. The heat is unmerciful and fresh young plants are the only way to fight back.

Thanks Gymgirl and Twiggybuds for all the info! I guess I had better get started on rooting those cuttings soon!

Cue_chik, I followed Twiggy's rooting instructions ( I think those are the ones I ended up with!) and there's nothing easier. I just had a plant with two main stems, so I broke one off, trimmed it to one main shoot, and stuck it in a pot with potting soil, watered it well, and then put the pot into a small rectangular tub that I keep filled with about two inches of water. That keeps everything very moist and the cutting never wilts at all!

I didn't know that the plants wouldn't be as productive as the originals, but it's still an easy way to fill in any gaps, which is the way I'm using them. I lost about six seedlings to cutworms or pill bugs early in the season, and the seeds I planted to replace them are still pretty tiny while the cuttings are huge.

I'd suggest taking a sucker cutting, aka lateral branch cutting, and a sucker is the stem that appears between two others, kind of in the armpit if you will.

Make a sharp cut so that the sucker is no longer than 6-8 inches, trim off the lower leaves and put it directly into a good artificial mix in the shade if you're rooting your cuttings outside.

No hormone is needed since tomatoes are somewhat unique in forming roots whenever the stem touches soil/artificial mix.

And it's best to put the cuttings directly in artificial mix, not water, b'c if you root them in water they just have to adapt to a sold matrix after that which takes more time. Water well, don't add fertilizer and soon you'll see new leaves appearing.

What you're really doing is cloning the plant so the plant you get will in all ways be identical to the plant from which you took the cutting, thus identical to any plant you raised from seed for that variety.

I don't normally take cuttings to grow a variety a second time, rather, I do so only when there's been critter damage or hail damage or the like.

But I don't live in an area where two crops a year are possible. Besides, I'm always trying to find that perfect tomato variety so with a few faves as exceptions I much prefer to grow lots of new varieties each season.,

Carolyn

Yes, I forgot to say that my cuttings live in the arbor, where there's dappled shade, so they don't get baked by the sun.

I can't grow two crops either; that would be lovely!

Leslie I'm so glad to hear you prevailed in spite of those hateful cutworms.

Cue-chick I just wanted to add that another good reason to start cuttings is that the combination of heat and humidity encourages all kinds of foliage diseases. My plants get ugly and end up with naked stems after the lower leaves yellow and die. It usually moves up the plants to result in very sparse foliage and the last fruit gets sunburned. Rather than try to fight it with sprays, I just let them do their thing and replace them. I root them in a 4" pot and then a 1 gallon. They often have 1 or 2 bloom clusters and even fruit by the time I plant them. It allows for fast turnaround and saves tying up a lot of extra garden space for tomatoes.

My daughter lives a few miles away and her plants get half a day of shade or dappled shade and her plants are still looking good from spring planting. Mine ripen faster but maybe it's because they're half baked.

Just as a bit of a goof I pinched off a side shoot from a Sweet 100 I was about to plant and stuck it in the dirt in a raised bed. It was about 2 or 3 inches high after I buried its naked little stem. i watered it when I watered the other plants in that bed, and now it's about a foot tall and has started to flower. I'm so proud I feel like a new mother! So, YES! You certainly can root tomato cuttings. It's almost like getting 2 plants for the price of one.

Keep pinching and you can get a dozen for the price of one. It's so easy it's almost cheating but I still get a big charge out of making those new babies. Congratulations!

Thanks for your info on tomatoe cuttings. I am replacing the ones I lost to snow and cold the first week in June. I was buying plants at a local garden center and they only had two Tumbler left. The clerk noticed one was broken. Since Tumbler is a bushy plant , I told her that it was okay. I kept the broken part and placed it in a pot of soil---just as an experiment. Now from this discussion---it is not an experiment and should work. Thank you.

Good advice though there are several suggestions. Carolyn's advice makes sense regarding soil matrix vs. water. However, I water bucket large cuttings (18"-2') for a week and add soil daily. At least half the plant is stripped for rooting. No hormone. There are huge roots within ten days. Into the garden. This method may be late for your area though?
L

Dr. C et al,
When should you begin to fertilize the rooted cuttings? I'm growing in 100% coir, in 5-gallon growbags. My rooted cuttings (taken at 6-8" and planted deep) are now about 18-24", and I'm planning on repotting them to 5-gallon eBuckets around mid-July. I need to get them through the July and August heat.

They are doing beautifully in a cool, dappled shade area. No distress, and the stalks are beefing up very nicely.

Please advise. Thanks!

Linda

Hello??

Linda, I don't fertilize my rooted cuttings beyond planting them out in soil that has had compost added to it. I had heard that it wasn't a good idea to give tomatoes too much fertilizer. Normally when I pot them, though, I put them in Miracle Grow's organic potting soil, which I'm sure has nutrients built into it even if they're supposedly all organic substances.

Thanks Greenhouse_gal!
After reviewing, I remembered I should transplant these seedlings just like I normally do for plantout in my eBuckets. Pelletized Dolomite and a fertilizer ring to start them on their way.

This message was edited Jul 1, 2009 12:26 PM

"I find that in my zone the indeterminates stop setting about the same time the determinates are finishing so I treat them all the same and just keep making new plants of the favorites. "

Twiggybuds


"What you're really doing is cloning the plant so the plant you get will in all ways be identical to the plant from which you took the cutting, thus identical to any plant you raised from seed for that variety."

Carolyn

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Does this mean you can root a cutting of a determinate plant and produce a whole new plant, even though (I've read that) determinates produce only a preset number of tomatoes?


This message was edited Jul 7, 2009 3:07 AM

Yes. I took the growth tips from some determinates, removed the baby flower buds and cut the large leaves in half. They went on to produce and they appeared to be as good as the originals started from seed. The performance was cut short by extreme heat and made even worse due to the fact that I grow them all in containers. They can't take as much heat as the ones grown in-ground. This is my first year with determinates but from what I can tell, the cuttings forget they're supposed to be terminal.

Twiggy, what are your favorite determinates? I want to try at least one or two next year and I'd like to know which ones folks like the best. Since it does get so hot here and we have so much trouble with foliage diseases, I'm planning to take cuttings from the plants I grow to ensure that I'll have tomatoes into the fall, so I'm also interested in knowing which ones performed well from cuttings.

I don't think I can answer that. I grew a bunch and of course some stood out. I started out just searching for small plants with good production because I need to grow in pots. I ended up with some of everything including some indeterminates that I really didn't think would work but they did.

Extreme Bush was tasty and very early.
Martino's Roma and San Marzano Nano were really good.
For red round medium sized fruit: Sheyenne, Mozark, Heinz 1439, Pearson, First Pick, Red Rocket and Bush Beefsteak all performed well.
If you like black ones, Black Sea Man was really early, large fruited and kept bearing a long time.

I'll grow all of these again.

I tried Heinz 1439, which is on Twiggybuds' list, and really liked the flavor. Growing it again this year.

This message was edited Jul 7, 2009 2:43 PM

About a month ago, I took some cuttings off a few different indeterminates down to Texas with me and gave them to Suze.

Since I cut the lateral shoots the night before I left for Texas and was driving and didn't want to have to mess with potting soil or spill water on the way down, I wrapped each variety (about 4 cuttings per variety) in paper towels and soaked them in water.

I took a couple of paper towels and folded them up so they would form a wrapper around the lower stems where I had clipped off the leaf fronds leaving only 4 leaf fronds and the growing tip on each cutting. Then I secured the paper towel wrappers with rubber bands and attached a tag signifying each variety.

After I soaked the paper towel wads thoroughly, I packed the little bunches into a drink cup and just made sure there was a half inch or so of water in the bottom of the cup for the 15-hour drive ... so the paper towel wrapper wads could wick up moisture as needed.

When we got to my daughter's house, I put each variety's pack into its own 16-oz drink cup and filled the cups half full of water into which I had put two crushed 81 mg baby aspirins in a quart of water and divided that between the 4 drink cups. Then I put the cuttings outside the next day behind a bush and near the outside wall so they would only get dappled morning sun. After I gave them that aspirin tonic, the leaves perked up noticeably ... thicker and greener looking.

It was hotter than blazes that week ... every day 98 - 105 ... so I had to rotate them inside when they looked droopy. By the end of the week, there were just the start of some little white roots on about half the cuttings. I took those cuttings and potted them up in 16-oz drink cups with some cheap potting mix from Walmart and took them over to Suze's house I think it was on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Anyway, that would've been 10 days, give or take a day, from the time I cut the shoots in Indiana.

Texas weather is mighty tough on tomatoes. And rooting cuttings outdoors in late June or early July in Austin ... especially this summer ... is hard on those tender little shoots. Several leaves showed signs of scorched edges. I hope they're feeling better after Suze's tender care!

Bill

Bill, what was the aspirin for? I've done everything else but that. When I root cuttings, I stick them into potting soil in a plastic pot which has holes in the bottom, and then the pot goes into a basin that I keep topped up with about two inches of water. They always take right off.

The aspirin was because when I got to Austin, I couldn't find any willow trees. I usually take some water willow shoots ... new green shoots ... bruise the leaves a bit and soak them in water to make some willow tea. That yields auxin to stimulate aventitious roots. I found something that looks like willow in Austin but it had pods on it and didn't look quite right. So, I used aspirin instead.

Interesting! I had heard of using willow to help root, but hadn't thought about aspirin as a substitute. Mine root without that, though.

Bill, all the cuttings you brought me are doing great. Thanks for going to all that trouble. I even had to pot them up a few days ago - roots were starting to circle a wee bit in the plastic cups and the plants are now close to 18". Kinda leery of planting my fall crop plants out just yet *groan* - still hot as blazes here! It was 104 here today, and still no rain of note.

Here in a few days, I'm going to rip the band aid off, so to speak, and plant 'em in the beds. I guess I will spray yet more Surround on the plants, clip a double or triple thickness of row cover on the cage tops, or use some shade cloth.

The PH F3 have turned out to be early (less than 75 days), pink (not purple), large as Brandywine, sweet but not as tangy as I like them, wagon wheel seed cells, some minor "hollowness" where the seed cells aren't always filled with gel, and one of the overall prettiest pink tomatoes I've grown. Beautiful, even skin tone. All of them so far have been 3 to 4 inches in diameter.

The (BWxNAR F2 PL) x Bolseno F1 have turned out mid-late (greater than 75 days), red, baseball size, just slightly flatter than Bolseno, not as tangy as Bolseno but with a good kick, not as meaty as other BWxNAR but not as juicy as Bolseno, fairly productive, very healthy, will fill but not over crowd a 24" dia. cage.

I can't remember which Indian Stripe plant I took the cuttings from. One is earlier and more productive than the other. That has been the case every year I've grown them. And this year it's the case with the selection I've been referring to as "B" ... one plant earlier and more productive than the other. I probably took cuttings from both plants, so it could be pot luck.

Thanks for setting the record straight about Sevin. I rarely use it and usually only on ornamentals. I found Safer insecticidal soap works better for me and I only use that on rare occasions. My point with that guy was to read the label rather than depend on advice you get at forums ... and apparently I should've stopped at that because Sevin was the wrong medicine to begin with.

Bill

"Bump"

Hey everyone. I've had this thread saved on my homepage for years and decided it has too much great info to just disappear.

I agree, it is a great thread. I have a tomato cutting in water on my kitchen counter, probably early girl or sweet 100 but it could be a cherokee purple, and a tomato plant in an aquarium in my fish room, and a couple of cuttings on the tray in my greenhouse that is watered by a pump in a stock tank with goldfish. I got zero summer tomatoes, for all my efforts at starting seed early and watering, when the rain finally quit the heat came on, so I would like winter tomatoes and I have a feather to pollinate with.

You don't need a feather just shake the flowers.