Long Term Tomato Cloning?

Originally Posted by BettaPonic

I have no luck with cuttings, so I use water.

The kind of soil you use makes a lot of difference. The main thing I've had to guard against for cuttings in soil (other than damage from too much light) is damping off disease (which can also cause root rot). Be sure to use new soil. Keeping a 2700k CFL shining on your soil really helps to keep damping off away, or if your window sun is bright enough, that may do the trick. Potassium sulfate helps the plants to absorb water and be stronger. A small fan may help to keep damping off away, too. Also, keeping the soil line as high as possible helps to keep damping off away to some degree.

Some people say it's better to use new shoots (an inch or two long) for cuttings, but I've had the best results with 6 to 9" cuttings or so. They seem a lot less fragile and less likely to die. I haven't done a lot of cuttings with new shoots, but big tomato branches are easy to root fast with good success rates (almost 100%) as long as you avoid bright light the first two days, and protect them from damping off (and avoid giving them excess nitrogen, which could encourage root rot, burning, less water absorption, and so forth). Whether the end result in fruit production is better, worse, or the same, I can't say. I don't use hormone rooting powder. They usually start growing within 4 to 7 days of rooting them in soil, given the right conditions. I'm not sure at what point they have roots, but leaf growth is a good sign.

Keep in mind, what I did was entirely with indoor plants. Taking cuttings outdoors is a little different, but it can be done.

I think the fruit production from cuttings is possibly better with some varieties than others.