[tomato] rooting suckers from plants

Ian & Laurie Stoba (stoba@earthlink.net)
Mon, 21 Apr 1997 14:30:58 -0800

>Has anyone had any luck with rooting these "sucker" branches?
>
I haven't tried this specifically but I suspect that it would work quite
well. I've had really good luck with potting up my tomato seedlings quite
deeply this spring, and I've observed good root formation on all the buried
stems quite quickly, like within a few days. We've also always trimmed off
suckers sort of haphazardly every several weeks on older plants in the
ground in past seasons and had great results in tomato production, plus it
makes it easier to deal with the rampant growth and get at those ripening
fruits. Should only be done with indeterminant varieties, however. Please
let us know how your experiment goes! I had an accidentally decapitated SF
Fog seedling in the garden this weekend (my two year old was helping with
the weeding), and as it was quite misty and moist, I just stuck the stem
way down in the soil. I don't hold out much hope for the guy, but hey, who
knows? Better than throwing it straight on the compost heap:)

Regards,

Laurie
San Francisco