Tomatoes from Suckers in Ten Easy Steps

Tomatoes in Row Garden, May 25

Hopefully, by now your tomato crop is coming along nicely. Ours is too, thank you very much for asking.

Row Garden, June 1:
Tomatoes in center row

Here in our Zone 7 Way Back Garden, the 6 transplants (two Celebrity, two Goliath, and two German Johnson...in foreground of picture, above/right) that were planted April 5th...ten full days ahead of the "optimum" time (AKA: the average last date of frost for the Piedmont, which is usually quoted as 4/15)...are growing strong and tall and bearing beautiful green fruit already. Even though we had to use row covers to protect the lot of them on a couple of occasions when the temps dipped below 45 degrees, I gambled and went against what I said in the recent Master Gardener program I did on Totally Tomatoes: "to be on the safe side, wait a week to ten days after ALDF before you plant your tomatoes." So much for playing it safe...and for "do as I say, not as I do."

Bush Early Girl, June 1,
in container on deck;
56 days after transplant

All the other tomatoes in the Row Garden (9 online-orders from Burpee added around 4/23: 3 Sun Golds, 3 Big Daddy hybrid, and 1 each grafted OPs Brandywine Pink, Brandywine Red, and Mortgage Lifter; 11 started indoors from seed, added about a month later: 3 Lemon Boys, 4 Roma, 2 Jet Stars, and 2 Juliets) are coming along well also, with a couple of those online-order Sun Golds fruiting up remarkably well already. The four bush varieties in containers (2 Early Girl bush, 1 Goliath Bush, and 1 Ace 55) are loaded with green fruit and yellow flowers. The Bush Early Girl that was planted 4/5 in a container on the deck actually has a red tomato (pictured left), only a couple days away from being my first BLT of the season.

In addition to bearing fruit (and tomatoes are fruits, botanically speaking, of course), tomatoes also go to great lengths to reproduce themselves by creating whole new plants...right there in the crotches between the main stem and a lateral branch. Those little suckers are known as, well...suckers.

Many folks who grow tomatoes see suckers as annoyances, as they can redirect the main plant's energy from producing fruit and must be pruned or removed, especially in the lowest 1-2 feet of the plant. But those same suckers can be a source of joy for the serious tomato gardener. Where some people see "more work," others see "more tomatoes!"

It's easy to start new plants...which will be clones, retaining the same genetic make-up of the parent plant...from those suckers you have to remove anyway in order to maintain the optimum production of the parent. That's a even-better proposition than trying to reproduce the characteristics of your favorite hybrid from saved seed, because hybrids notoriously are unreliable in this effort. Plus, with the high price of decent-sized so-called 'heirlooms' (a better name might be 'open-pollinated'), getting an off-spring with very little work cuts the cost in half. Because you will start with a 6-8" "cutting," you will have a jump-start on replenishing your mid-summer tomato crop, should one or more of the parent plants succumb to disease or insect invasion come late June or July.

Here are ten steps to get your new tomato crop started:

Removing a sucker from
hybrid tomato,
planted in Row Garden 4/23

1. Pick an overcast day, preferably after a good, soaking rain (which will "plump up" the parent tomato), to remove a sucker for rooting. Suckers are those new stems that grow at the join of each lateral branch on a healthy tomato main stem. If you wish to start a new tomato by taking a cutting, allow the sucker to grow on the healthy parent tomato (no evidence of disease, please) to about 6-8 inches long, then gently cut the stem off just above the joint where it is starting, using sharp floral scissors (see picture). If the suckers have started flowering, that's OK.
   
   Helpful tip: Be sure to make a plant marker, showing the name of the parent tomato and the date you took the cutting...especially if you are taking more than one sucker-cutting from more than one variety of tomato.



2. For each sucker, fill a container with a mix of good potting soil and compost, avoiding soil from your garden.  Any suitable container deep enough to accommodate one-half of the length of the sucker plus one inch will do. [For instance, if your sucker is 6" from cut to top, choose a container that is at least 4" deep: (6/2=3)+1=4.] You can use a commercial potting mix with fertilizer, if you wish, but fertilizer is not necessary to root tomato suckers. Still, it can be a time-saver after the sucker has rooted in the container.
   
   Another time-saving tip: always have a prepared container or two ready to receive a cutting.


3. Gently snip off any branches or leaves on the lower half of the sucker, leaving at least 4 leaves at the top of the sucker. Avoid stripping any of the stem as this can create a pathway for pests.
4. Dip the end of the sucker in rooting hormone and tap off any excess. Do you absolutely need to use rooting hormone? No. Does rooting hormone give your cutting a jump-start on developing a good root system? You betcha! Plus, I find that I get more successful rootings, increasing my plant count.
5. Poke a hole in the soil in the prepared container with a chopstick or a pencil, and then push the sucker into the hole in the soil, being careful not to knock the hormone powder  (if used) off.   Plant the sucker at least halfway in the potting soil, with the leaves left on the upper portion above the soil line.  Gently firm up the potting mix around the sucker's stem.
6. Water the container thoroughly. If necessary, add some more potting mix to maintain the proper depth of the sucker. Place the plant marker in the container to help you remember the variety.
7. Place the container in a shaded area, providing protection from the harsh rays of the sun.
8. Water daily to keep the soil moist while the sucker is rooting.  Don't worry if new tomato wilts for the first couple of days. By Day 3 or 4, it should be standing straight again.
9. After about two weeks, begin checking the new tomato to see if roots are developing, by gently tugging on the stem.  In about three weeks, roots should have developed enough to  (a) move the new tomato to a larger container, if necessary to accommodate the root system, and (b) begin exposing the new tomato to direct sun.  You should also give the new tomato a feeding of diluted fish emulsion at this time.
10. After 4-6 weeks, sun exposure should be up to "full sun" (6-8 hours/day) and the root system should be developed enough and to move the new tomato to a permanent location.  Congratulations! You have rooted a new tomato from a sucker!

New plants from rooted tomato suckers

Here is a shot of my own Sucker Garden to date (left).  I have rooted cuttings of the following varieties:

Sun Gold (in the purple containers)

Goliath

Celebrity

German Johnson (an open-pollinated 'heirloom' variety)

Brandywine Pink (an OP 'heirloom' that I ordered as a grafted tomato)

So far...so good! Only problem...where am I going to plant all these new garden members, hmmmm?