Saturday, June 23, 2007

rooting tomato cutting

There she was. Listless yet with the flush of good health still upon her. I wanted to cry but instead I ripped what was remaining of her from the ground. My tomato plant. The culprit was clear... a cutworm. It couldn't quite get around the bulky stem but did enough damage. I should have left the tomato there, mounded up soil around its base and let it do what it does best - root again but I was too devastated.

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Rooted tomato cutting in sippy cup.
Poor Picture Quality brought to you by my broken digital camera!
Instead, I took a leaf from each of my poor babies - the mystery winter keeper and the black cherry tomato and I put them in a glass of water.

Like magic, they started to root at the base of the leaf. I just love plants like this. It only took 4 days. I'll be putting them in soil shortly and then in the ground. We'll see how they do.

Links:

Just a whole lot of info about tomatoes
More info on rooting tomato suckers
Forum discussion about rooted tomato suckers
Cloning tomatoes (aka rooting cuttings) - a discussion on extending the tomato season (very interesting!!)

4 comments:

Christa said...

What a great idea. I have a Brandywine plant that's not doing well right now. I might clip a stem and see if I can start a whole new plant. Good luck with yours!

Anonymous said...

How did your plants turn out? I'm dying to know...

Ottawa Gardener said...

I think I stuck it in the ground. It was awhile ago so I can't quite remember but I know people do this successfully.

Anonymous said...

If you soak the base of the cutting in a little honey over-night, then plant straight into a loose loam tomatoes will sprout new roots very quickly. The water method works, too, but the roots formed in water are a bit different than the ones that form in soil. Going straight from cutting to soil actually reduces "shock" and grows a stronger, more hazard-resistant plant. Good Luck!