How to Clone a Tomato Plant

Choose an offshoot, or sucker, from the junction between
the main stem and a larger branch of your tomato plant.
Photo by Brad Sylvester
All rights reserved

When most people think of cloning, they think laboratories, bio-hazards and maybe even one of the Star Wars movie sequels. In reality, cloning your favorite tomato plants is quick and easy. It's a great way to propagate tomato plants and jump start your winter indoor garden.

Because clones are genetically identical to the original, they should share all the properties of the parent plant. This method is great for propagating hybrid varieties that don't breed true from second-generation seeds.

Just keep one plant inside over winter and use it to create the next spring's plantings. It's also a great way to save money. If you buy one large potted tomato plant from a local vendor, you can clone it and get extra plants for free! This is a great trick for expensive heirloom varieties.

To promote a vigorous and healthy tomato plant, you should remove the suckers (especially from the bottom 1-2 feet of the plant) as these will divert energy away from the main producing stems and lower your overall yield if left in place. Removing the suckers also keeps the tomato from getting too thick and bushy near the ground. Good airflow around the base of your plant helps to prevent mold, fungus, and diseases from getting a foothold in your garden.

First make sure the tomato plant you're using is healthy with no signs of blight or other disease. Using contaminated plants for this will just propagate the disease and the new plants will not be successful.

Then look for the places where a large branch comes off the main stem. Many of these will have a new smaller branch growing from the "V" formed by the stem and the branch. These are called suckers. These suckers are what we're after. In the picture below, the small stem in the center is the sucker. They will grow and add new leaves, whereas the other established branches will not. Look at the other branches and notice how there is no place on them where new leaves are growing. These branches are just food factories for the rest of the plant. The suckers are like brand new complete tomato plants and will add new leaves, flower, and bear fruit. They should snap off easily if you gently bend them at their base. Be careful not to squeeze the stems as this can damage them and kill the suckers.

You can plant each sucker in an individual pot or put several into a planter box or window box. Space them at least 3"-4" apart if you use a common planter. If you use an individual pot, choose one that is at least 3-4" deep to allow room for good root development. And bear in mind that you may need to transplant to a larger container later if they get too big before it's time for them to go outside into your regular garden. I use Miracle Gro's Moisture Control Potting Soil. It is the right consistency, doesn't pack down hard, holds moisture well, and feeds the plants for the first three months in the new soil. This helps them grow faster and more reliably as they establish new root systems. Using a pencil or similar implement, poke a hole into the soil.

You'll want to plant the sucker as deeply as possible keeping leaves and branches about an inch above the top of the soil. If you need more depth, you may need break or trim the bottom-most pair of leaves off the sucker before placing it into the hole. Gently firm up the soil around the newly planted sucker. You want to make sure you don't leave any air pockets around the stem.

Water the new plant generously and keep an eye on it for the next few days. For the first few days, you will see it wilting from time to time. Remember it has no roots at all and needs to re-establish an entire root system. For the first week, it should be kept out of direct sun, but still in a bright place. When you see it wilting, you can give it a boost with a light leaf misting to help the plant absorb water. It will most likely wilt every day for 3-4 days until some new roots begin to form. Keep the soil very moist for 3-4 days, then water as you would a normal tomato plant.

After about a week, your plant should have enough roots to keep it going with no special treatment, place it in the sun and keep it well watered. If they do start to wilt, continue to mist them. I'd wait at least 3-4 weeks before transplanting to their permanent location (longer is ok). Then, just take care of it like any normal tomato. Remember tomato plants love the sun! Once it is established it should be given as much light as you can give it during the day, but don't be tempted to leave indoor grow lights on 24 hours a day. Plants need the day night cycle for proper growth and maturation. 12-14 hours of light per day works great for tomatoes.

Not every cloned plant will make it past the first week, but if you follow these steps, you should have a very high rate of success. With good follow up care, you'll have a healthy new crop of cloned tomato plants. You can increase your rate of success by applying a Rooting Hormone to the suckers before placing them in the soil. There are many different brands available and they can be found online or at your local nursery. Follow the directions for the one you buy. Basically, though, all you need to do is dip the portion of the sucker that will be in the dirt into the rooting compound before planting it. If the rooting compound you choose is a powder then just dip the sucker in water first to help the powder adhere to the plant. With a rooting compound, you should get nearly one hundred percent success in cloning tomatoes.

One Pound of Produce

Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012.

It's May 19th. Our most recent threat of overnight frost passed on May17th with temperatures only getting down to about 34 degrees, here on Blue Job Mountain in New Hampshire. Meanwhile today, temperatures hit the high seventies or low eighties. That's a New England spring for you. Old Man Winter struggles fiercely to maintain control of the territory against the challenge laid down by the adolescent spring as it strengthens into its full adulthood of summer.

That's great for poets, but for gardeners it can take some getting used to. Its largely a question of knowing what to plant when, and how to prepare if things look like they aren't going to go as planned. To take advantage of the early season warmth and rains, very hardy plants like radishes, lettuce, spinach, peas, and broccoli can be planted for an early season harvest.

Even before these frost-tolerant plants will be close to ready to pick, however, I have made several harvests from plants that are able to overwinter through the sub-zero temperatures and snow cover of a New England winter. These include some perennial herbs such as chives and oregano, but also a more substantial perennial vegetable: asparagus.

Asparagus is always one of the first vegetables I harvest here each spring. It is on the strength of an early harvest of asparagus that I have already reach one-tenth of one percent of my goal in the 1000 Pound Challenge (the effort to grow 1000 pounds of food for the table on less than 500 square feet of garden space). That's one pound of food on the table already this year from our garden.

• Click here for our harvest totals for this year

I also have one row of my terraced hillside garden planted with strawberries which are just beginning to shed their flower petals and to produce fruit in earnest. I am removing all the runners as they form so that the plants put more energy into fruiting than vegetative growth.

After another round of planting today, our garden now contains the following plants:

1. Asparagus
2. Garden Peas
3. Mixed Lettuce
4. Spinach
5. Radishes
6. Bok Choy
7. Cucumbers (both full-sized and pickling cukes)
8. Basil
9. Red Cabbage
10. Tomatoes (just a few planted outside as yet with row covers handy)
11. Mustard Greens
12. Garlic Chives
13. Chives
14. Lemon Thyme
15. Thyme
16. Sage
17. Garlic
18. Leeks
19. Strawberries
20. Wax beans (just planted as seeds)
21. Sunflowers
22. Cilantro (Coriander)
23. Summer Squash
24. Peppermint
25. Chocolate Mint

We'll be adding a few more in the next few days as well...

 Outside of the gardens we have many other edible plants (or fungi):

1. three apples trees (7 varieties thanks to the science of grafting),
2. one peach tree (newly planted)
3. one cherry tree (newly planted) (Note: I'm aware that I need another pollinator, but haven't yet gotten around to planting another)
4.  three grape vines (one established, 2 newly planted)
5. rhubarb
6. blackberries (wild)
7. blueberries (wild)
8. wintergreen (wild)
9. occasional edible wild mushrooms
10. maple and birch trees (for sap which can be boiled down into syrup or sugar)
11. and a number of other incidental wild edibles that can be found on our 5.25 acre plot of land.  

 I haven't added these to my garden yield totals page since they do not count toward the 1000 Pound Challenge, but I think I'll make a separate total for food plants harvested outside of the garden as well.

1000 pound challenge accepted

Vegetable and herb seedlings for the 2012 season.
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2012.

A friend of mine who writes "The Good (& Simple) Life" blog has thrown down the gauntlet. With a 500 square foot area in which to garden, she has vowed to achieve a yield of 1000 pounds of produce over the course of one full calendar year -measured from April 1st 2012 through March 31, 2013 (assuming the Mayan prediction for the world to end in 2012 doesn't come to pass).

That's two pounds of produce per square foot and it's not an easy goal. It helps that Angie, the woman behind "The Good (& Simple) Life" blog's 1000 pound challenge, is planning her garden in the state of Georgia where the growing season is significantly longer than ours here in New Hampshire. Conversely, the fact that she's doing it all organically makes it arguably more difficult.

North vs. South Gardening Challenge

We, here at the "Living with the Land" blog, are taking up the 1000 pound challenge and we'll be comparing results over the course of the year. We will represent northern gardeners while Angie will represent the South.

Size Matters

As Angie noted in her challenge post, she will be growing "tomatoes (enough for canning), peppers, eggplant, zucchini, winter squash (my personal obsession), lettuces, cabbages, fennel, onions, garlic, peas, beans, cucumbers, celery, okra, beets, radishes, carrots, potatoes, parsnips, watermelon, spinach, Swiss chard," and other items as whimsy dictates throughout the year on her rectangular 20 x 25 foot garden plot. That's 500 square feet of garden space.

My garden plots total about 375 square feet and I'll add in another 30 square feet of herb garden. I will not count other producers like an existing grape vine, apple trees, maple trees or other edible wild plants growing throughout my 5.25 acre yard for the purposes of the challenge. I will, however, keep a record of these things as a side note since it may be of interest to those trying to live with the land.

What to Grow This Year

Since I still have some time before the regular growing season starts here, I hadn't yet fully planned what I'll be growing yet. I have already started some seedlings indoors, however. So far I have several varieties of tomatoes including grape, Roma, and Better Boy hybrids, among others. I also have started summer squash, cucumbers, sunflowers, and red cabbage. I have a handful of 2nd year leeks already in the ground along with garlic chives, asparagus crowns, and some garlic cloves planted last year, and have about 40 square feet of the garden area dedicated to strawberries.

I expect that I'll be planting garden peas, pole beans, chili peppers (several varieties), bell peppers, lettuce, spinach, carrots, beets, various greens such as mustard and arugula, and a variety of herbs. My herb garden already contains a few plants that are able to overwinter here with minimal protection: sage, chives, lemon thyme, peppermint, and oregano. I'll weigh the herbs as freshly picked, rather than dried. I use them both ways.

Organic Versus Not so Much

Angie is a committed organic gardener and even uses as much passive watering (collected rain-water) as possible. I am less avid, but still like to avoid using chemicals on my food where ever possible. My water comes from a well on my property. I compost our vegetable and plant scraps along with some of the chicken manure that our backyard flock produces. I have been known to spray Miracle Grow on my garden, use a fungicide for powdery mildew infestations, and once I even used Sevin insecticide for a particularly bad infestation in the garden. I sometimes buy composted cow manure and peat moss to enrich the soil if I am adding a new section of garden. My gardens are raised bed (about 180 square feet) and on a terraced hillside (the remainder, minus about 30 square feet of non-contiguous herb garden).

I have mentioned the short growing season here. As I write this, it is snowing here despite the fact that we had two days of 83+ degree heat last week, naturally followed by two nights at 20 degrees or less. We are in what New Englanders refer to as "mud season." Even my terraces and raised beds are too saturated with water for planting even if the temperatures allowed. With a few exceptions, a significant portion of any seed I put in the ground now would likely rot. As long as we get nights that are below freezing the soil temperature is going to stay low, although the terraces help on that front.

Early spring planting here is a wager. You plant your toughest crops and hope that the weather doesn't call your bluff. Row covers or a small greenhouse could provide protection and greatly extend our growing season for some of the hardy crops, but I don't want to spend more to grow my own food that it would cost me to buy it at a local farmer's market.

The North Poised to Take an Early Lead

A quick survey or the gardens shows me that the warm days we had last week have kicked a few things into gear already. On day one of the challenge, I'll be able to make a token harvest and, hopefully, take the lead over "The Good and Simple Life." It'll be just a handful of chives, some lemon thyme and a bit of oregano, and possibly those few remaining leeks, but if our northern garden is going to have a chance, then every ounce counts and a lead is a lead.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Despite a much shorter productive growing season, we do have the advantage of mature garden beds. The majority of our garden has soil that has been prepared in years past with compost and manure mixed with the sandy and unproductive soil that naturally occurs in our yard. Depending upon the soil quality of Angie's yard, and the amount of available organic compost and composted chicken manure she has available, she may struggle to attain maximum productivity for the first year as nutrients are added into what may  (or may not be) less than optimal soil.

Goals and Techniques

I also want to mention that both of us are aiming for a well-rounded garden whose goal is to provide as much of the table produce for our families as possible. If this were a straight productivity race, we'd each figure out which one or two crops are the best producers by weight and ground area required and plant only those one or two items. Conversely, I expect we'll both benefit from intensive gardening methods and by using a vertical approach such as providing vertical surfaces so that cucumbers and other vines grow upward, letting pole beans climb high up posts and the stalks of sunflowers, while squash and other ground covers act as a natural mulch holding in moisture and preventing soil nutrient run-off.

We'll use successive plantings to try to double up on area used for short-lived plants (like spring peas). and, of course, as I've mentioned, I'll be giving our veggies as much of an early start as possible by seeding them indoors until the weather allows them to move into the garden. While we are having fun with the race to 1000 pounds of garden produce, the real goal is to learn to optimize the available garden space that we have, share best practices, and pass on a little of what we learn to others.

Game On!

We'll detail and compare techniques, obstacles and results with Angie over the next year. Hopefully, the two of us and our readers will learn a few things throughout the process. Don't forget to participate by sharing your favorite tricks for higher yields as comments on the blogs as well.

Game on!

Putting up Green Beans by Blanching and Freezing Them

"Green beans are one of most prolific vegetable plants in my garden, year after year. Once the plants start producing, they'll keep producing green beans all season long. The pole bean varieties will continue growing and actually increase their production over time as the plant continues to get bigger and bigger. With just six pole bean plants in my garden, I am picking them at least two days out of three and getting more than my wife and I can eat each time we pick." So what do we do? We blanch and freeze the excess and enjoy green beans all year round.

Read more about how to optimize production of green beans and blanch and freeze them here.

Spring planting

After a week or two of rain and cold temperatures, known in New England as Mud Season, we are now into full summer with 80 degree temperatures. Technically it's not summer for another month, but close enough. Tomatoes that are hardened off (gradullay accustomed to the harsh UV of the sun and the temperature extremes of night and day) can be planted outdoors now with almost no risk of frost kill.

Already growing in our gardens outdoors are:
strawberries (blossoms forming now)
Concord grapes (flower bud clusters forming -lots of them!)
apples (several varieties- blossoms fading now)
asparagus (We've already harvested two batches this spring.)
chives (ready to harvest)
garlic (from outdoor overwintered bulbs)
leeks (second year for seed)
chocolate mint
cilantro (tender to frost, but it self-seeded from last year and I guess it knows when it's safe to start growing)
lemon thyme (ready to harvest)
oregano (ready to harvest)
lovage (ready to harvest)
wintergreen (growing wild throughout our forest)
rosemary (freshly planted)
blackberries
garlic chives (ready to harvest)
(I had also planted Jerusalem artichokes, but they were eaten by moles (or voles or some other such little burrowing beastie)

Today, May 26th, I planted:
red cabbage
summer squash (yellow straight-neck)
cucumbers (Marketmore)
fennel
pickling cucumbers
tomatoes (roma, brandywine red, and another indeterminate heirloom variety whose name escapes me at the moment)

In the house I have:
1 large brandywine red tomato which I plant to grow throuhg the fall and into winter as long as I can keep it healthy and fruiting
6 miscellaneous miniature hot pepper (chili) plants in an Aerogarden
two freshly cloned brandywine red tomato plants

Those are the edilbes that we have growing at present. I'll add more soon, beets, green beans and others to be determined.

Starting vegetable seeds indoors

There are some parts of the country where the growing season is so long that you can wait to plant most ordinary vegetables directly outdoors, if you should forget to start them indoors. New Hampshire is not one of those places. The growing season here runs just about 120 days between the average last day of spring frost and the average first day of autumn frost.

For those keeping score at home, that's May 20th to September 20th, just four short months. To be fair, there are some hardy garden plants that aren't really bothered by a little frost every now and then. Spinach, cabbage, brussel sprouts, and a few others can be planted outdoors as soon as the soil can be worked. Of course, if the soil is too cold, then the seeds will remain dormant and risk rotting if the soil is also too wet.

Other vegetables are too delicate to place outdoors until the danger of frost has passed. These include staples of the New England garden like tomatoes, summer squash, cucumbers, and tender herbs like basil. These delicate plants should be started indoors to get a head start on the short growing season.

For most of these, six weeks before the last date of frost is the right time to start them indoors. Varying from that timing depends upon the amount of space you have and your level of gardening ability.

If you have trouble keeping house plants alive, then you're probably going to be better off waiting until about four weeks before the plants can go outside. That gives you less time to screw things up.

On the other hand, if you are very confident in your ability to nurture house plants, then you can go as long as eight weeks indoors, but you may need to transplant them into larger pots once they outgrow the initial seed-starting trays.

In any case, even if the temperatures are warm enough you can't simply take your indoor plants and put them outside in the garden without acclimating them to the conditions to which they'll be exposed there. Just as deadly to seedlings that are used to being indoors is direct sunlight.

If you take tomato plants that you started indoors and place them directly outdoors in a sunny garden, they'll be badly burned and maybe killed completely by the harsh sunlight. They are simply not used to it. You need to give them a chance to gradually toughen up or harden off.

That's done by controlled exposure to the outdoor elements. If you move your seed trays to an unheated three seasons porch they can get used to colder night temperatures. To get them ready for the sun, you can put them outdoors for short periods of time, bringing them in before they are over-exposed. Start with the gentle sunlight of the morning hours and work your way up to full midday sun over time.

Another option is to go ahead and plant them outdoors in the sun, but protect them from the harshest solar rays during the heat of the day. You might cover them with a translucent row cover that knocks some of the strength out of the sun, and keeps them warmer at night until the plants are a little stronger.

So, the point of all this is that I have several varieties of tomatoes, hot peppers and a couple of pickling cucumber bushes already started a couple weeks ago, and the rest of the plants will be starting this week.