Tops of lead stem fried

[akgardengirl]

While on vacation, 4 of my tomato plants must have grown against the grow lights for a period of time as they are fried off. Will this hurt the production of the plant? Will another stem take over and if so, will the plant be spread out like when a tree is topped? A couple were cherry plants.
Sue

[robin303]

How big are they. One thing about tomatoes they do put off secondary’s. Couple yrs ago I waited for the 6th leaf set and topped it off into two vines.

[PaulF]

A couple of years ago, I lost the top half of a Kosovo and created an accidental dwarf. It topped out at about two feet tall and produced regular sized fruit, just not as many as usual. The plant died earlier than normal, too. I guess the stress was just too much.

[akgardengirl]

The plants range from 12-16" tall. I repotted them today into 1/2 gallon milk cartons. I hope I am not wasting space and the short growing season if the leaderless won't produce as normal.
Sue

[carolyn137]

Sue, I can't remember if you grow everything in a greenhouse or outside or a little of both.

My question being, would you still have time in your zone 3 to take and root some cuttings from those damaged plants which are really quite big and should have ample lateral branches ( suckers) to take from.

[akgardengirl]

We have around 3-4 weeks until the temp is warm enough to harden off and plant, or if it suddenly turned warmer then I would start to harden them off sooner. I can try to root the suckers. Those are the ones between the branches, right? They are not real big right now.
Sue

[dice]

I broke off the growing tip on a Marmande seedling that only
had one leaf a few weeks ago. Now it has one leaf and two
tiny branches. I think that is pretty much the norm for what
tomato plants do when they lose their growing tip.

I also took cuttings from the tops of a few different cultivars
that I started really early this year and put them in water.
The original plants started growing side branches from the
crotches of leaves and are quite healthy. I will probably trim
them down to 2-3 main stems for the season and cut off
other side shoots. (I am seriously trying pruning this year,
to avoid overcrowding.)

Cutting the fried tops off may slow them down a little until new
growing tips develop (some kind of plant hormone is produced
there that is produced nowhere else in the plant), but if they
already have side shoots, no problem there.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by akgardengirl

We have around 3-4 weeks until the temp is warm enough to harden off and plant, or if it suddenly turned warmer then I would start to harden them off sooner. I can try to root the suckers. Those are the ones between the branches, right? They are not real big right now.
Sue

Yes, the suckers, aka lateral branches, are the shoots that come out between branches on the main stem and with plants that tall I would think that the suckers would be big enough.

Stick them in some artificial mix and under the lights and keep well watered until you see new growth.

I think you'll be able to get some decent plants in the time you have left before they have to be hardened off and set out.

[akgardengirl]

The biggest sucker that I have is 3" so I will try that one. The other plants have tiny ones. Sherry is giving me a replacement Black Cherry, which was one that was worse off. Thanks for all the suggestions.
Sue