Member discussion regarding the methods, varieties and merits of growing tomatoes.
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August 28, 2022 | #1 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: May 2011
Location: San Antonio, TX Zone 8B
Posts: 118
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Propagate Cutting or Cut Back to Ground?
Is it better to replant a rooted tomato cutting, or to cut the original plant down to the ground and let it grow back from a sucker?
Weeks ago I took some cuttings from my indeterminate cherry tomatoes. Using a little rooting hormone, I have now got quite a few in water that have sprouted lots of roots. I could completely pull the original plant and replant a cutting in its place. Or I could let the original plant grow back from having cut it down nearly to the ground. In this scenario the pre-existing full root system would already be established. But I'm wondering if that somehow would make it a "tired or elderly plant" as opposed to planting one of the cuttings that I have propagated. |
August 28, 2022 | #2 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: May 2019
Location: Seattle
Posts: 58
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It depends how you care for the plant. Greenhouse plants with optimum nutrient delivery can grow extraordinarily long and don’t become elderly. An ordinary plant that goes through a long summer, uses up the fertility, gets lots of foliage damage during fruit growth is a different thing.
If you can grow from a low sucker with the full root system though, I think that’s preferable all other things the same. It takes a while for a plant to establish itself. |
August 29, 2022 | #3 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central MN, USDA Zone 3
Posts: 302
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I have two tomato plants in my garden that are about 10 years old...in a sense. In the fall, when the worst of summer heat and humidity are over, tomatoes try real hard to start over, unaware that soon the snowballs will fly.
I have rooted cuttings from this plant every year. I disagree, at least to a degree, that a plant can grow "elderly". I give them just enough light and nutrients to keep them alive through the dark months, and by mid-May, when planting seedlings, I put them out, too. It's an unremarkable pink globe, except for one thing; it began as a comparator to verify if a project seed was done segregating...and I just kept going. As regards the original question, I would choose the strongest examples of what you have. An already-established plant/root system is not going to exhibit "transplant sulk" if that is a factor. As always, my opinion, based on my experience. I'm a random nut on the intertubes. Sent from my motorola edge using Tapatalk
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a day without fresh homegrown tomatoes is like... ...sigh |
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