I'm so confused about this. Some sources I read say that if you prune and plant suckers, you can get a later crop from them. Others say that they will produce at the exact same time. I've planted several suckers and only two of them have tiny tomatoes, despite the fact that the parent (is that the right term? lol) plants are loaded up with nearly ripe tomatoes.

*****

If you take about a 4 inch sucker cutting to root remember it's only part of a whole plant and the cutting has no roots and little foliage.

So that cutting has to be rooted, allowed to grow into a small seedling and then replanted and will always develop blossoms and fruit later than the plant from which the cutting was taken.

Carolyn

A rooted cutting is a clone of the original, but it is about like starting all over with a little plant. I do not see how anyone could think that it would produce tomatoes at the same time as the plant that it was cut off of. Give it time, it sounds like it is working fine if it already has a few tiny tomatoes on it. I would think that the plant would have to grow quite a bit in order to hope to support any big tomatoes.
Bill P.

Corrigan,

I've seen rooted suckers from dwarf plants continue flowering as they were rooting in a jar of water, and actually set fruit while developing new roots and before transplanted into garden soil or container mix.

Generally, rooting a sucker that's four to six inches long is about the same as dealing with a transplant of the same size with regard to fruit production timelines. You will find some discussion to the contrary at some Webpages where they'll claim rooting suckers will give you a jumpstart compared to transplanting seedlings in the ordinary way.

After reading some of those discussions, I played around with rooting longer side shoots ... like 12 - 18 inches in length ... and did get some ripe tomatoes in about 60 days from indeterminates (from which the cuttings came) that otherwise took 80 days or more to ripen fruit. But then the cuttings were growing in warmer weather later in the summer, right?

Again, the only ones that continued to open the buds that were on the cuttings when snipped and subsequently set fruit during the rooting process for me were dwarf types like Husky Red, Heartland, and another one I got from a nursery last year but can't remember the name just now.

Thanks, guys. I also didn't understand how they could be expected to set fruit at the same time, but I read it in two different places. It seemed illogical to me, given the whole need to develop roots and all, but I'm still new at this, so you know. :)

One other advantage that rooted suckers have is that if you keep them in a sunny window while they root and plant them really quickly as soon as they have some roots you may not have any problem with hardening them off or transplant shock. I think they are the best way to extend your growing season, refresh your tomato patch and fill in holes from casualties that happen over the growing season. And you have the ability to choose cuttings from plants doing well for you at the time. I pinch off developing fruit/flowers when I start to root them so the energy goes into root development.

I pinch off developing fruit/flowers when I start to root them so the energy goes into root development.

*****

When I have to take cuttings I only take those that have no buds or blossoms.

And I don't do it routinely, that is, when a plant has been decimated by wind and rain, or critter damage, is when I do it.

I don't normally take cuttings to grow the same variety again in the same season or heaven's forbid, overwinter them, as some folks do, b'c I've always been interested in growing new varieties that I haven't grown before.

Besides, where I live first killing frost can come as early as early September to as late as the middle of October, and if cuttings are taken too late there's no way they can mature to give a good yield in my area.

Carolyn

Thanks to everyone for the fabulous information! I've been gardening all my life but until I found GardenWeb I'd never heard a single solitary thing about growing tomatoes from slips. Man, am I ever gonna have fun with this!

"Thanks to everyone for the fabulous information! I've been gardening all my life but until I found GardenWeb I'd never heard a single solitary thing about growing tomatoes from slips. Man, am I ever gonna have fun with this!"

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That is because rooting cuttings is something seed companies don't want you doing.

Make sure you send in the royalties on anything thats (PVP). ;) a big LOL!