Gardening How to – Cloning Tomatoes

Cloning tomatoes from your summer tomato plants is simple. Make sure you select healthy plants. Choose suckers that are growing low down in your existing tomato plants. Suckers grow in the joints where a branch comes off the main stem. Bend each sucker back gently but do not press the base of the sucker too hard as this may cause damage.

Plant these suckers directly into four-inch pots filled with peat. Dipping the sucker ends in rooting hormone before planting is said to help but it is not essential. Make sure you firm the peat very tightly around the stem when you plant the suckers. Do not be discouraged when you see the leaves wilting. The sucker has not roots initially and you will need to keep the peat very mouts for the first ten days or so.

Then water normally. The tomato suckers will start producing new leaves and you can then transplant them into your garden. Ideally follow the same procedure as for winter tomatoes, prune new suckers and train the tomato plants up canes or supports. This will help air circulation and diminish the risk of mildew and other fungal diseases.