Tomato cuttings

easy guide to propagate tomatoes when it is too late to sow

A tomato plant wasn’t born to stand to attention on a tomato stake, pruned within an inch of it’s life to a singledelicate stem. It’s a rambler, and like pumpkins and herbs like thyme all it needs is to touch its stem to the earth for it to sprout roots. This delightful trick can be used to your advantage when it gets too late for any tomatoes you sow to mature in time to bear any significant fruit.

A tomato cutting will bear fruit in a matter of weeks after the cutting sprouts roots.

So I plant all my tomato seeds in True Spring (Southern Hemisphere: September-October, Northern: March-April), plant them out in the beginning of High Summer (Southern: November, Northern: May). Then once these grow multiple stems about 20-30cm long I take cuttings to make extra plants from High Summer -Deep Summer (Southern: December-Mid March).

And here’s the best part! Tomato cuttings don’t actually need to be cut off the parent plant until they have grown roots! “What?!?” you say, here’s how:

ingredients

plastic juice/soft drink bottle

knife

secateurs & methylated spirits for disinfecting

hessian/cloth

scissors

electrical tape

chock

seed raising mix & trowel

chamomile tea

cutting-plastic-soft-drink-bottle-reuse-recycle

step 1

Cut base and top off the bottle. As bottles are wider at the bottom than the top, the top should be cut off at the point where it is slightly smaller than the base.

step 2

Cut hole in base for tomato stem to pass through.

step 3

Chose a 20-30cm long stem and after disinfecting your secateurs with metho cut off all but 2-3 top leaf stems. Also remove any flowers so the tomato puts all its energy into producing roots.

how-to-make-tomato-cutting-plastic-bottle

step 4

Cut a piece of hessian to fit in the bottle base. Snip a cross in the centre for the tomato stem to be threaded through. You do not need to cut the stem from the parent tomato plant! Take the rest of the bottle and place the top end in the base.

step 5

Tape the base to the bottle with electrical tape.

step 6

Fill bottle with seed raising mixture being careful not tpo bruise or snap the tomato stem.

chamomile-tea-tomato-cutting-healthy-resilient

step 7

Chock up on a piece of wood. A brick and timber board work well. Label with name and date.

step 7

Water with diluted chamomile tea.

protect-tomato-seedlings-sun-roots-develop

the next few weeks

step 9

Keep your tomato “cutting” moist for the next few weeks, it’s very important that it doesn’t dry out.

Roots should start forming in the first week, but there is no need to cut in until you are ready to plant it in its new home. It should start developing new leaves as well.

step 10

By this stage you should clearly see a mass of roots through the plastic bottle. Cut the tomato cutting from its parent below the bottle, remove the bottle base cut the bottle along the side to slip it out before planting. A cut bottle can be reused by electrical taping the side back together.

why are bottle tomato cutting best?

Tomatoes are very prone to transplant stress. With an established root system before being snipped from itsparent your cuttings are more likely to survive.

It’s a great way to “clone” any particularly resilient, tasty tomatoes you have in your garden and extend its harvest beyond the life of its parent.

They transport well in their bottle pots.

As your cutting is already around 15cm tall out of the bottle your plant will grow tomatoes much sooner than a cutting taken the traditional way (only around 6cm) or a seedling grown from seed.

A great way of re-using plastic bottles that would otherwise go in the recycling bin. A clear bottle means you can see the roots growing.

step 8

Wrap the bottles in hessian to protect the growing roots from the sun and retain moisture.