Tomatoe plant duplication

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This may be common knowlege to all but i'll post anyway. In Missouri which is climate region # 6. I can extend my tomatoe harvest by a little sucker trick. In mid June look over your best tomatoe plants and pick the small green suckers that are less that 6" in length in total. Place in a glass of water on a sunny window sill. With-in a week you'll notice little roots coming out of the base of these suckers. Once the roots are well developed you can pot these or I just plant in the garden. Another trick that has worked for me is if you have an old compost pile that is somewhat shaded~place the suckers partially buried in the compost. Just keep well watered. I guess if a person wanted to you could plant a minimal amount of plants in the early spring then extended the harvest by doing the above. I usually have a large harvest of tomatoes in early september that last well into November if protected during cold snaps

-- kevin (innxxs@yahoo.com), August 11, 1999

Answers

I forgot to mention in the above. Your suckers will wilt slightly in the compost pile at first then if you keep watered well they'll pick up and root into the pile. Transplant into the garden once the roots are well developed. Also suckers are cheap pull plenty in case of partial failure to root...............good luck to all

-- kevin (innxxxs@yahoo.com), August 11, 1999.

Kevin, We do this to start plants to keep over winter in the greenhouse. Also is an easy way to keep your favorite hybrid varieties of tomatoes going year after year without trying to store up a supply of seed. Around here (western Wisconsin) our season isn't long enough to do a second planting outside, but I can see that it would be an advantage further south.

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), August 11, 1999.

Kevin:

You are in Missouri in Zone 6. I am too but in Zone 4. You are lucky. What you say works well in my experience. A little rooting agent helps but is no necessary. We also re-root and grow under light banks during the winter. For small tomatoes it works well. Tip Top [originated in the Ozarks] seems to like this.

Best Wishes

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), August 11, 1999.


A little way to save money--shred up a younger branch from a willow or poplar tree and let soak in jar of water...then dip cuttings in this...if you have ever cut these type trees down you know how fast they grow.--once made a temporary fence of poplar posts and they all sprouted branches !!

-- MUTTI (windance @train.missouri.org), August 11, 1999.

Here in Florida, my garden is long gone due to heat, and I will plant again in late September. I extend my tomatoes, okra and egg plant by pruning them way back during the hot season. Yesterday I cleaned up the garden and pruned the tomatoes, okra and egg plants back to about 8 inches from the ground. These will soon begin to grow again and I will be knee deep in them before frost in Jan. If you can protect your egg plant over the winter, it will come back again in the spring. I am sure this method may be difficult in the north.

Taz...always looking for the easy way.

-- Taz (Tassie@aol.com), August 12, 1999.



Taz- I live on the Georgia coast-therefore in your planting zone. My tomatoes and eggplant did really well and would love to keep them going through the first of 2000...Question: when you say you pruned them back to about 8" from the ground, did that allow for any "side branches with leaves" to remain on them or just a stalk? My tomatoes are beginning to die (yellow leaves from our 100 degree weather) but my eggplant is still producing "fruit" - it would hurt me to prune it, but then again I'm getting a bit tired of eggplant. Can you give me any further details? Thanks (this is my first garden!) Jen!

-- Jen (jenwhite@darientel.net), August 13, 1999.

By-the-way:

Do you know that you can do the same thing with beans. Just cut-off one growing tip, place it in sterile water and it will root nicely. Under lights it will produce beans in no time at all. Good in the winter.

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), August 14, 1999.


Mutti:

By the way, willow produces a large amount of salicylic acid [related to aspirin]. I don't know what this does to all plants but it inhibits root formation in Glycine species [from our published research].

Best,

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), August 14, 1999.


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