Tomatoes are everybody’s favourite vegetable, and I am sure if you are a gardener you do have few different varieties growing. Tomatoes are not the easiest to grow, and tomato seeds do take time to germinate especially in a cooler home. If you have sown your tomato seeds a bit too early and have few plants gone leggy because of the lack of light or low temperature and some of them even died you can try this method to propagate new tomato plants from your existing ones. Have you tried propagating tomato plants from cuttings, if you haven’t it’s very easy. If you have any plants which have grown very leggy, don’t throw them away, simply cut of the top 6-8 inches of the plant and either place in a glass of water to root, or stick straight into a 4-5ins pot of multipurpose compost. They will root in 7-10 days. Alternatively you can use one of the side shoots that are removed from cordon plants. These softer shoot cuttings are best rooted in a glass of water. You can use any side or top shoot from any tomato and it will root easily at this time of the year.
A big advantage these cuttings have, is that they are the same age as the parent tomato plant that the cuttings were taken from. This means they are not like young seedlings, their DNA is of a much older more mature plant, so will flower and fruit earlier. Many of the cutting, especially from the tops of leggy plants, already have a truss or two of flowers.
If you are short of a few tomato plants and you would like more growing, or if some of your plants have gotten leggy, give it a try. I always root a few in June, sometimes even in July to get a later tomato crop. Last year I was picking tomatoes in November, in a cold greenhouse. It is also a good way of bulking up your stock of expensive varieties.
