# Tomatoe Plants From Cuttings



## Davarm

I was out in the heirloom part of my tomato patch over the last few days and noticed that where the wind had blown some of the plants and cages over, the stems had started rooting. This isn't uncommon for tomatoes, I usually just let them grow.

I decided to pull up the rooted stems, cut them, put them in a bucket to root and see what kind of plants they would make. After they sit in the bucket of water for a week or two I'm going to till up a bed, plant them and see if they turn out to be productive.

I definitely dont need more tomatoes but I thought I'd try it and see what happens. If they do take off and produce fruit, I thought it would be a way to start sets for winter plants without going through the trouble of starting from seeds.

I've also thought about taking the rooted sets and experimenting with hydroponics, that is down the line a bit but gathering info and doing all the experimenting I could before hand would prove useful.

I'm wondering also if I took a set from a Hybrid "Determinant Producer" if it would restart its productive period or just grow a plant that had already been through its cycle, meaning I'd be growing a non-producing plant.

Anyone ever try this?


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## *Andi

No ... I have never done it but I have had plants to do that ...

Look forward to your experimenting post update.


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## Meerkat

Anyone who can find a way to do hydroponics organically let me know.

Yes you can grow a producing plant from the rooting's. 

You can also start one off a side branch while its still on the plant. 

Cut plastic bottle down the side, wrap it around the stem, fill it with soil and water it you will see the roots through the bottle when the grow. Then just cut the rooting off the plant and plant it, we got lots of tomatoes off ours this year from one of these.

I read about this last year on ' mhpgardener' on youtube. Hubby wanted to try it out.


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## Meerkat

Heres the video,he calls it cloning guess that's what it is.


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## cowboyhermit

Tomatoes are super easy to grow from cuttings, you can use water or a good soil-less mix, rooting hormone is not necessary but works. Tomatoes are a perennial in their native habitat and yes they will certainly produce fruit from cuttings. Taking cuttings before blooming works very well and the pruning will not set back the parent plants significantly.
I think in a shtf situation it would be a very quick way to expand veggie production from a limited seed supply.


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## Davarm

The biggest question I hope to answer is with the "Hybrid Determinant" producers. If you take a cutting at the end of their production cycle, will the cutting produce like a new plant or will it also be through producing like the parent plant was. 


In the next day or 2 I'm going to go and take cuttings from my hybrid plants and see if I can bypass the whole "Hybrid Seed" problem, at least with tomatoes anyway.

Anyway, will post the results as get them.


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## JayJay

I just took 8 cuttings from one of my plants.
It is already producing fruit and has lots of blooms and little tomatoes-- the donor, not the cutting.
I placed 4 in water and 4 in soil.
They are on my covered porch and will get indirect sunlight; if I see it is too warm, will bring in to a window area.

I'll let you know in a few days how they are.

I hoped for a late tomato garden since both sets in my raised bed died.
10-10-10 killed the first set and planting too deep (advice from internet:scratch) killed the second set.

Day 2--they haven't even wilted.


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## Davarm

JayJay said:


> I just took 8 cuttings from one of my plants.
> It is already producing fruit and has lots of blooms and little tomatoes-- the donor, not the cutting.
> I placed 4 in water and 4 in soil.
> They are on my covered porch and will get indirect sunlight; if I see it is too warm, will bring in to a window area.
> 
> I'll let you know in a few days how they are.
> 
> I hoped for a late tomato garden since both sets in my raised bed died.
> 10-10-10 killed the first set and planting too deep (advice from internet:scratch) killed the second set.


Be watching to see how yours go. Today I tilled up a fertile plot where I had beets growing in the spring and got it ready to plant my sets, just waiting for some roots to grow a little more.

I've never heard of planting a tomato too deep unless you covered it almost all the way up. Tomatoes will root from the stem and should take off and grow no matter how deep you bury them. Thats one of the things about gardening, what works for one may not work for another.

Those who wait until TSHTF to start planting and get everything worked out will likely loose some weight in the process.


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## Viking

A while back my wife cut two long portions from an heirloam tomato plant, I took them down to the compost pile scraped a little trench threw the stems in and covered them, put a bit of water on them and the took off big time.


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## Freyadog

all we ever do with tomatoes is pinch off the suckers(lower new limbs about 3-4 " long) and stick them in a pot of dirt and keep them watered. In a few weeks the roots are established so we can plant them.


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## Meerkat

Meerkat said:


> Heres the video,he calls it cloning guess that's what it is.


 The purpose of cloning is you have a plant growing tomatoes in half the time.

We cloned 2 this way, no problems and it produced the same plant ' heirloom' in half the time of cuttings.


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## JayJay

Day 3 and not even wilted yet.
4 in soil and 4 in water.


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## Meerkat

LOL guess yall didn't like my mhpgardener thingy. Anyway JayJay glad the cutting's are doing good .


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## AdmiralD7S

Using this method, will both parent and child plants become full size (vines) and produce the same number of tomatoes? Wondering if they each produce fewer tomatoes (I.e. do I half the growing time but also half the number of tomatoes I get from each plant?).


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## cowboyhermit

The way I first did this is the way Freyadog mentioned, when cutting off the suckers in the greenhouse I just stuck them in the "dirt" and was amazed at just how easy they rooted. They produced as much, or very near as much as the original plant, though obviously they were a bit behind as they had to develop a root system and catch up. The original plants are completely unaffected if you use suckers. For us it wasn't as dramatic as halving the growing time, but it would depend on the size of cuttings I suppose. 

In a shtf situation one packet of seeds could produce hundreds of plants in short order.


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## Davarm

Tonight I added 2 hybrid "Determinant" plants to the new patch. Found 2 vines that had rooted in the low part of my garden so I cut them, dug them up and replanted them. 

Will look for some more to add to the new plot tomorrow.


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## JayJay

So, IF this works, and the fruit is abundant, this would be nice for planting tomatoes in shifts to mature at different times so all the fruit isn't ready the same week??:scratch
I like that...plant 5 tomatoes, snip off suckers, in 3 weeks, plant those , and do it over and over???

Day 4 and not even a wilt.


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## Davarm

Meerkat said:


> The purpose of cloning is you have a plant growing tomatoes in half the time.
> 
> We cloned 2 this way, no problems and it produced the same plant ' heirloom' in half the time of cuttings.


I set 6 plants to root(today) the way he did it in the video, will see how they comes out.

Hopefully the plants will survive that A$$-Hole neighbor's herbicide that he's been spraying.


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## JayJay

Day 8 ...no wilt.
and about ready tomorrow to set the tomato cuttings that are in the cups into planters for a week or two.
When I remove them if there is no visible root system, it didn't work.
The 4 in the water glass haven't even begun to sprout roots and I think they should have.
I have set the plants in full sun for a few hours each morning--I will treat the planter pots the same way--a few hours of sun each day.

Note to self: jinx Davarm's a$$hole neighbor.


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## Davarm

JayJay said:


> Note to self: jinx Davarm's a$$hole neighbor.


Thanks, send him all the bad "JU-JU" you can!


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## Meerkat

Davarm said:


> I set 6 plants to root(today) the way he did it in the video, will see how they comes out.
> 
> Hopefully the plants will survive that A$$-Hole neighbor's herbicide that he's been spraying.


 It worked very well for us we only tried it once though. We have a couple of neighbors that are real toons.

Will try to cuttings too now that they are all dying out from heat and humidity.


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## *Andi

Davarm said:


> Thanks, send him all the bad "JU-JU" you can!


Be careful what you wish for ... sometimes things get lost in the wind. 

Just so you know ...


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## Davarm

Yea Andi, been there - done that, I'll just hope the winds from the right direction on this one!


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## JayJay

Day 14, yep took 2 weeks for my cuttings to get a good root system in the cups.
No wilting ever--a little sun each day until 6 days ago--rain and clouds each day.
I planted them in my raised bed--will let you know how they grow.
I didn't add powdered milk/Epsom salts to the hole because the soil in that bed is rich, manure and compost.
I will add this IF the plants begin to bloom.
My 4 plants in the flower plant bed(that get milk/Epsom every week) are 6 ft+ and I can't keep them tied--gonna have to start cutting the new limbs.
Nice sized tomatoes, getting 4 or 5 a day--will have late tomatoes with these because there are many, many little green ones and still blooming.
Man, I gotta start cutting new limbs. The lower limbs have 5/6 clusters of huge tomatoes--must be the milk/Epson.


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## Davarm

I know what the Epsom Salt is for but have never heard of anyone using powdered milk.

I would guess its used as a calcium source?

3 of the plants that I just cut off and transplanted with whatever roots they had developed died but still have 7 or 8 that are limping along and 3 or 4 that are growing well. I'm guessing that they couldn't handle the stress of being moved and having the hot sun beating down on them all day long.

One of the ones that are doing well has a tomato on it already, didn't look to see what verity it was but I'll check tomorrow.



JayJay said:


> Day 14, yep took 2 weeks for my cuttings to get a good root system in the cups.
> No wilting ever--a little sun each day until 6 days ago--rain and clouds each day.
> I planted them in my raised bed--will let you know how they grow.
> I didn't add powdered milk/Epsom salts to the hole because the soil in that bed is rich, manure and compost.
> I will add this IF the plants begin to bloom.
> My 4 plants in the flower plant bed(that get milk/Epsom every week) are 6 ft+ and I can't keep them tied--gonna have to start cutting the new limbs.
> Nice sized tomatoes, getting 4 or 5 a day--will have late tomatoes with these because there are many, many little green ones and still blooming.
> Man, I gotta start cutting new limbs. The lower limbs have 5/6 clusters of huge tomatoes--must be the milk/Epson.


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## JayJay

Davarm said:


> I know what the Epsom Salt is for but have never heard of anyone using powdered milk.
> 
> I would guess its used as a calcium source?
> 
> 3 of the plants that I just cut off and transplanted with whatever roots they had developed died but still have 7 or 8 that are limping along and 3 or 4 that are growing well. I'm guessing that they couldn't handle the stress of being moved and having the hot sun beating down on them all day long.
> 
> One of the ones that are doing well has a tomato on it already, didn't look to see what verity it was but I'll check tomorrow.


Wow--that's awesome. 
Yep--calcium and magnesium.
My transplants had indirect sunlight on a covered porch, then a few hours each morning and 6 days of cloudy and rain--I bet NOW it will be 98 and sunny--but I have 5 gallon buckets and a water hose!!

Been there done that for new plants!!

If these give me any healthy tomatoes--I am doing this next year.

Now, I planted sort of late two tomato plants out by these flat rocks with another 3 beside the house--the two out by the cut off huge wild rose bush are growing like wild flowers.
Then I started thinking--okay what was under that huge bush for 6 years we been here??
Rabbits and babies and lots of fertilizer- Now think about the bird fertilizer for 20/30 years that bush lived there--yeah, home grown fertilizer...and that's why my tomatoes will be grown there next year!!


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## SouthCentralUS

Davarm said:


> I was out in the heirloom part of my tomato patch over the last few days and noticed that where the wind had blown some of the plants and cages over, the stems had started rooting. This isn't uncommon for tomatoes, I usually just let them grow.
> 
> I decided to pull up the rooted stems, cut them, put them in a bucket to root and see what kind of plants they would make. After they sit in the bucket of water for a week or two I'm going to till up a bed, plant them and see if they turn out to be productive.
> 
> I definitely dont need more tomatoes but I thought I'd try it and see what happens. If they do take off and produce fruit, I thought it would be a way to start sets for winter plants without going through the trouble of starting from seeds.
> 
> I've also thought about taking the rooted sets and experimenting with hydroponics, that is down the line a bit but gathering info and doing all the experimenting I could before hand would prove useful.
> 
> I'm wondering also if I took a set from a Hybrid "Determinant Producer" if it would restart its productive period or just grow a plant that had already been through its cycle, meaning I'd be growing a non-producing plant.
> 
> Anyone ever try this?


I did something similar. I had 5 heirloom tomatoes outside my kitchen window and they were about 6 feet tall. They were not bearing well and the tops of the vines turned completely brown. I picked all the tomatoes and started cutting the vines off a piece at a time. When I got to the bottom there were 4-6" green plants on the original vine. I decided to leave them and now they are blooming and 3-4 feet tall. We will see what happens. I also sprinkled Epsom salts around them.


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## JayJay

My plant in the front showed it was overwhelmed today--I picked off the green tomatoes for relish after it fell over even being tied.
I got little and medium sized and 5 huge --40.
I counted 35 big green left and the plant is cut down from 7 feet to about 4 now, but is hanging in there.
I also took the cuttings in water that weren't rooting to the garden and planted them sideways in a trench-like hole.
No more 7 foot tomato trees!!


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## Salekdarling

I actually decided to try this with celery that I didn't get a chance to use up. I threw it in a mason jar with enough water to cover the bottom, and set it on my desk near the sunniest window we have in my dark little apartment. It took actually took root. I'll have to move it to a pot soon, but since my cat is an a**hole, she'll see that I put effort into growing an indoor plant and try to eat it.

My husband thinks she's just "precious".  I should give both of them the boot! Just this morning, I decided to do dishes, and realized that my husband threw dirty plates on top of my drying green pepper seeds. Didn't notice until they started floating in the sink!


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## JayJay

I only had 3 tomatoes root in the cups of cuttings.
3 are in the raised bed--two are fine, one is turning brown.
I haven't needed to water--we have had two good rains.


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## HoppeEL4

Never tried this, however, we have had this compost pile out back a while, and it is not nicely broken down, so I used some to replant some strawberries. After a while I noticed what appeared to be a tomato plant. Now I know it is, it has flowers on it. I know this came from a store bought tomato seed that has sat in the compost pile, and am going to see what comes of it.

I have also had potatoes sprout in the compost pile too, but we wound up pulling them because we were not in the mode to eat potatoes from a then not so broken down compost pile...LOL


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## JayJay

My two plants that lived in the raised bed don't seem to be sprouting any new leafs.
Two days of bright sun should do that.
A test only, but will see in a few days.

Hoppe--I have 4 sweet potato plants on the front porch--I bet they will have a few potatoes on them.
I transplanted them to larger planters and one had a nice potato on it--I ate it!!


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## HoppeEL4

Fun. I think often you hear that nothing will come from store bought produce you re-plant (the stuff that can be from cuttings and such) and from beans, wheat, etc...But I have heard from a few that it has. I know my son keeps telling me that my old seeds won't grow after a while, this is what their seed reps tell them, but I told him you never know, and my own opinion is the seed reps tell them this to keep them buying more seed. I could see it with the seed onions or potatoes, but the tiny seeds, I have had them a while and they still grow produce.

I have yet to do yams/sweet potatoes, but need to next year. This year was bust for the garden things were too up in the air here about the living situation, and we have settled in for a long haul and are planning a large spot in a new location (from our first two spots when we first moved here, the soil in those two was not good). We're also mulching the heck out of this spot from now till spring, fencing it (keeping cats and deer out).


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## Davarm

Bump


Since the growing season is just about over I thought I'd give an update on my tomato plants.

All my hybrid cuttings pretty much dwindled and died after an initial boom in growth, without doing much more than blooming, I think one plant had 1 tomato before it shriveled and died back.

My plants from most of the heirlooms hung on and 4 of them thrived but only now have started to put on fruit(still green). Several of the heirloom plants have grown up to shoulder height and are loaded with blooms and green tomatoes, I'll have to wait until they ripen to see which heirloom plants the cuttings came from. I neglected to label them when I originally planted the cuttings, in hindsight that wasn't too smart.

I'd say my preliminary results would indicate that the hybrid tomatoes wont do a whole lot of growing or production after the fruiting time is up but the hybrids will take off and keep growing and producing from cuttings. 

Anyone else have any results from the experiment?


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## Viking

The two heritage tomato cuttings I planted in late June are still hanging on after many near freezing nights, I've been taroing them at night so that may be helping. I've got to say that the old heritage tomatoes got to be the toughest plants I've even grown, not one tomato has had bottom end rot. Now a couple of them that were laying on the ground started rotting but that's not bad. None have ripened on the vines and probably won't as the nights , even on the hottest days, are generally below 60 degrees but they ripen well in a cardboard box in a cool room we have and boy do they ever taste good, much like the what I remember as a kid over 60 years ago. Dang, just saying over 60 years ago seems weird, it kind of doesn't register in my mind.


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