Tomato from regular branch cutting rather than sucker?

[hagfish16]

Hi all- quick question.. Last season I had a lot of luck with rooting/planting tomato suckers.. This year I've got a cherry and an early girl next to each other in a patio picker.. I thought both of them were started from suckers, but now I'm thinking one of them may have been from a normal branch.. It grew nice roots in the water cup, and has been in the planter for going on a couple weeks now and although the leaves mostly look healthy, I'm not seeing much if any new growth, side shoots, etc. Am I wasting my time with this little guy if it's not a true sucker, or will it eventually take off? Picture attached, thanks for any insight!!

--Pete

 

[Chuck]

I don't know for sure if a limb is suitable for rooting. I have had tomato plants cut in half by hail and have successfully rooted the plants tips but a tip isn't exactly a limb.

 

[hagfish16]

Well, it definitely rooted. Before moving into the planter I moved it from water into a clear plastic cup with soil and after a few days you could see the roots everywhere through the cup. I just expected to see new growth by now, which has me wondering if non-sucker branches will still grow into a plant, or perhaps they just take longer than a sucker would?

 

[headfullofbees]

It'll root, but you have no growing tip.
You need that for further growth above the ground, afaik, and since suckers only grow at leaf axils, it probably won't be able to, so it may be only of academic interest.

 

[roadrunner]

I bought six Better Boy tomato plants at the end of February (I normally only buy seeds, but these were so cheap I had to...). I accidentally stepped on one a couple days later (the plant was only 4-6 inches high) and I broke it in half, basically I broke the top off.

I took the top and removed a few of the lower branches and planted it next to the other half and after a few days it looked as if the top half had died away, but then a couple weeks later and I see it emerging out of the mulch. Fast forward to today and both plants are about the same size and they both have some tomatoes growing on them...

It'll be interesting to see how they do, compared to the other plants; as of now they are doing just fine, but not as big as the other ones, but they are producing.

 

[roadrunner]

....BTW, keep us posted on how your branch turns out...I'm kind of interested if a branch will produce.

 

[Meadowlark]

A very easy, very reliable way to propagate tomatoes is to lay a limb down and cover part of it with soil leaving a top exposed. In a few days it will root and you can cut the limb from the main plant and transplant.

 

[hagfish16]

Thanks for the comments everyone.. I may move this one to a different pot just to keep the experiment going, and put a different one in the picker!