Can I Reproduce Tomatoes From Stems or Leaves?

Benefits

• Cloning tomato plants can save you money, because multiple plants can grow from the stem cuttings of just one purchased plant. This method also makes it possible to keep one tomato plant indoors over the winter and then propagate multiple plants for the garden during the spring from the one plant. Cloning from stem cuttings also ensures that the new plants will have fruit quality and growth characteristics similar to those of the parent plant.

Supplies

• Tomato stem cuttings need a lightweight potting soil or peat moss mixture in pots. Use a sterile potting mixture to avoid disease problems. They also need consistent moisture and a bright area without direct sunlight until they begin to establish themselves. It is possible to break off suckers from the parent plants by hand, but other stem cuttings will require clippers or a sharp blade to remove them from the original plant.

Preparation and Taking the Cutting

• Fill a plant pot with peat moss or lightweight potting soil. Moisten the potting medium so it is damp but not overly soaked. Look for suckers, which are small branches that come from tomato plants near the places where a larger branch forks from a stem. If possible, break a sucker off the plant. If suckers aren't available, take a healthy-looking cutting from the upper part of the plant. The cutting does not need to be a specific length, but around 6 inches will work well.

Planting the Stem Cutting

• If the cutting has leaves near its base, remove the bottom pair of leaves. Poke a hole in the potting mixture with a finger or pen. Stick the cutting into the hole, leaving its leaves above the soil. About one-third to one-half of the cutting's length should be under the soil. Keep the soil moist by watering it regularly. Keep the cutting somewhere warm and out of direct sunlight. In cool growing conditions, help the new plants stay warm by adding small stakes around the edges of the plant pot and stretching plastic over the stakes and pot to form a warm tent.

  After a week, start introducing the cutting to some sunlight each day. Increase the amount of sunlight the cutting gets every day, so it gets full sunlight after about a week of increasing exposures. After three to four weeks in the pot, the cuttings will have strong enough roots to withstand transplanting outside.