Most of the gardeners are familiar with starting new perennials and shrubs from cuttings, but the best part about this process is you can even start vegetables using cuttings including tomatoes. Growing tomato plants from cuttings is one of the easiest ways to have number of tomato plants in your garden. Generally, tomatoes take lot of time to grow from seed to small plant it takes more than eight weeks. But, a new start from cutting can be ready to transplant in the garden within 14 days.
Keep on reading the complete article to know how to propagate tomato plants from cuttings. Firstly, check out the benefits of growing tomatoes from cuttings.
Benefits Of Growing Tomatoes From Cuttings:
The cell within stems of tomato plants is capable of developing roots easily. So, remove the side stems that sprout out of your plant that need to be removed as it grows.
Instead of growing tomatoes from seeds, propagated plants have head start on those grown seeds so you can see fruits earlier than expected.
Taking cuttings from the plant means that you not only growing tomato plants for free, but you can also put your off-cuts to good use at the same time.
Let’s See How:
Step1:
Take The Cuttings:
Take a strong knife and cut several strong side shoots from the selected tomato plant. Make sure it is healthy and its length should be 4-6 inches from the point you cut on the top of small leaves.
Now, cut off the lowers leaves of the stem you’ve taken. Never leave any leaves to the stem, because if you leave extra leaves on, the cutting might have difficulty surviving.
Step 2:
Using Rooting Hormone Powder:
Many gardeners propagate cuttings without using rooting hormone powder, but using this substance stimulates the end of plants stem to form roots and it even boosts your chances that cutting takes.
All you need to dip the bottom one inch of cutting in to rooting hormone powder and then insert it along the side of clay pot filled with compost. You can even use a pencil to create a space to insert the cutting.
Water the compost well and place it in a greenhouse that isn’t scorching hot. Because hot places can fry those little cuttings before they have chance to grow especially if the leaves are wet.
On Compost:
Blend one part of perlite with two arts of peat free compost to create a good draining mix for cuttings. Plant them in clay pots with proper drainage which helps the compost moisture enough for the growth of plant.
Caring The Cutting After Planting:
Initially, the cuttings should be in pots but within a day they should perk up and begin forming roots. As I said earlier, keep the compost moist but not soaking. It takes 4-6 weeks for them to produce strong roots coming out of drainage hole of the pot.
Once you see the roots, plant them in the larger pot and keep it in a light, warm and frost free place such as inside the house until you can plant them up next year.