free tomato plants
I’m sure there must be some newcomers to the world of grow-your-own out there who are unaware of the cheap and easy way to increase your stock of tomato plants.
The way I do it is this. When growing cordon (single stem) plants you need to pinch out the side shoots that grow in the bracket formed between a leaf and the main stem. These are unkindly known as ‘armpits’ and can be treated in the same way as cuttings from other types of plants. I let them grow to three or four inches then nip them out and put them into a cup of water. After five to seven days you should see small root hairs developing and they can then be potted on into multi-purpose compost.
Keep them well watered and they will soon start to grow away. I prefer to mist mine as well three or four times a day with a fine spray of water as it lessens the likelihood of the plant drying out. After another week your plant should be looking healthy and ready to play catch-up with its parent.
This plant is two weeks old...try doing that from seed!!
The beauty of this method is that it is much more reliable than growing from seed, especially for beginners. It works especially well for F1 varieties where the seed can be quite expensive. Sow one seed or buy one plant from a garden centre and get yourself half a dozen free ones.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Darren Blick on -
This is an excellent tip and what the site should be all about
I only discovered this last season but as you say, a cheap way to produce more
Also, if you select your strongest and best plant, you can mimic it with the side shoots from it as it will be the exactly the same
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Permalink Reply by Bobby on -
I wish I'd read this before I pinched out all those side shoots this afternoon...
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Permalink Reply by Deborah Davies on -
Me too, I did mine the other day and just threw them in the compost, but will remember this next time, I love this forum, I have had so many great tips, we need more PLEASE.........
Bobby said:I wish I'd read this before I pinched out all those side shoots this afternoon...
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Permalink Reply by Catherine on -
This is a great tip and I found it out a few years ago. My trouble is I also grow from my own seed and then have too many anyway...then when I see a large sideshoot that I have missed I plant it....I always end up with too many toms..LOL!
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Permalink Reply by Colin Robinson on -
Same here but this year three of my neighbours decided they wanted to grow tomatoes so I can get rid of quite a lot that way. Mind you, I still have too many :)
Catherine said:This is a great tip and I found it out a few years ago. My trouble is I also grow from my own seed and then have too many anyway...then when I see a large sideshoot that I have missed I plant it....I always end up with too many toms..LOL!
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Permalink Reply by Sarah Smith on -
I tried this for the first time this year, but wasn't sure if I'd left it too late for the new plant to produce any tomatoes - it has roots but is still much smaller than the other tomato plants.
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Permalink Reply by Catherine on
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Yes, but you could snip the main stem sooner and grow many smaller ones faster!
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Permalink Reply by Debbie on -
I never knew that! Can't wait for a decent sideshoot to develop so that I can try it as, like Bobby, I did mine this morning!!
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Permalink Reply by elaine rickett on -
I do this every year Colin but I don't put them in water I just plonk them in potting compost - I only let one truss form which is ample for me - at the moment I have about a dozen 'extra' plants on the go.
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Permalink Reply by Colin Robinson on
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I've done it that way in the past, Elaine but find that not every one takes whereas they do if put in water first.
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