Man, I'm kicking myself. Why am I still messing with starting seeds and composting suckers when I could have been cloning and getting a huge jumpstart??

it helps to cut the stem into a V, so the cambrium layer is more exposed and also cut off as much leaves as possible so that the plant will focus energy on rooting, and always keep them in the shade when cloning

I took some suckers 2 weeks ago and just stocked them in the ground not expecting them to survive and a couple of them are flowering now. All of them survived.

Suckers are basically new tomato plants. I plant them directly into good potting soil, skip the water step, and keep them in semi shade for 2 weeks so they can root. I then plant them in the bed and they do great.

I did this a few weeks ago for the first time. I put them in pots with soil though. They rooted so quickly! What an easy way to save money, time and enjoy a good experiment ^_^

Can be done with any portion of the plant. I had two plants growing too close, so I cut one at the base and just stuck it right into the garden at another location - covered it to provide shade for a week and it is doing great. To be honest, I didn't expect it to survive, but so far so good.

This was one of the first tricks I learned in gardening it's so easy and you'll have 100s of tomatoes

I just did this exact same thing and it worked absolutely great on an indeterminate Cherokee purple heirloom tomato. I waited for the roots to get to about 3/4" and transplated to soil. Kept it extremely wet for a week and it's now growing like a champ!

Gary, Your vids are awesome. I too took some small suckers and put them directly in overly moist soil. The smaller suckers work best, as you said. I had one break off a plant that was more than 12 inches long and flowering. It's probably not going to make it. I also had a whole plant get broken off before I could stake it properly, and just sticking it back in the ground and keeping it moist brought it back to life. My wife couldn't believe it. Thanks again.

That so amazing! I just pruned my tomato plant I didn’t know I could save them to grow new plant, I will definitely try this !

Im think I can root some larger suckers in my area early July and get them in mid July for mid size 70 day tomatoes. I think sucker rooting might save me like 4 weeks of seed to transplant. But I am learning this season.

This is so cool! I just pulled off some suckers yesterday. I'm going to give this a try...

It works well. I am making rootings as a disease plan. I am put some rather large suckers in cups and they are rooting. I am amazed at how fast I might get an new flowering tomato.

Thanks. I am going to try that too although I have not place to put them. Addicted!

Awesome, gotta do this tomorrow. Only just learning vegetable growing for the first time and my tomato plant is FULL. Learned about suckers today and tomorrow, they're coming off and I will do this.

It is such an easy way to get more plants. I may attempt bringing a couple plants inside over the winter and continuously keep them going through cloning, and then clone in the spring for the garden. It might be a little bit of a task, but free tomatoes and not starting everything from seed sounds like an easy start.

Yes I also discovered this by accident. Left them in rain water popped them in pots and they just grew! So easy. I also just stuck two straight in the ground. With total neglect they also grew. Quite astonishing.

Thanks. I will try that in the future.

I figured Id listen. Always something to learn.

I was just thinking I need some tomatoes... and poof here is bid to help me get some! Amazing, thanks... you are a blessing

I did this as well, but also put some suckers directly in the ground after picking them off of the plants and they are doing great!

That is what I did, I figured I would give it a try. You can see from the comments there are lots of ways to do it.

My test plant is doing great too. Wish I had 2 additional months of tomato growing season.

It works quite well.

Thank you sir👍 I can do that and i will.. My grandma used to do that with all kinds of flowers and vegetables

Wow, Thanks Gary

Great point. And while a plant will re-establish roots if cut at the base, that definitely wouldn't fall into the category of cloning. I did it because I was thinning my plants and wanted to see if I could save the ones I thinned, as opposed to just tossing them.

I live in Florida and to get more tomato plants, I just put a larger sucker in an empty soda bottle with some rain water in it. It is the perfect size and keeps the plant from falling over.

Yes, starting from a sucker seems like it's about a 3 week head start over seeds. I'm going to try that next year, letting early suckers grow to a decent size and then root them, as an easy way to get additional plants going. I just planted one and have one more that I'm giving another week to root and that'll be it for the season.

wow! those roots are amazing! I did this last year but I stuck it in soil so never got to see all the roots!

Thanks for showing how easy and simple it is. I was going to order rock wool plugs to root them in but now I see I don't need to. Very good! There is a broadleaf evergreen tree related to Laurel that I want to root and fear it won't be as easy.

thanks for making this. I'm going to save some suckers and do the same thing for some clones.

Cool! Can't wait to try it.

Thanks.

I might run into a timing issue to. But it is something to try.

Beautiful. Great method to duplicate hybrid varieties. Useful technique in where I live, where heirlooms tend to succumb to the TYLCV and TMV.

great stuff. Will try it. thank you

thanks gary

Fun to experiment.

Taste and clone... a good method.

Gary, please keep us updated on the progress of your clones. I have always wanted to try this but havent gotten around to it. It is nice to know that is a cinch. Also, my roma tomato plant is pretty much dead. I tried the epsom salt along with fertilizer and pruning back the yellow leaves in hopes of saving it but whatever it was has scourged the plan thoroughly. Funnily enough, it is the only tomato plant that has these symptoms. I will definitely not use the soil in that bucket again.

Thanks Gary. Ihave planted new seeds directly in the soil and will see what happens

Great way to save lots of money!

Great video. I have really good soil. I have just poked a hole in my garden, put a freshly plucked sucker in the hole, watered it every couple of days and it grew a bunch of tomatoes. I did it with Mortgage Lifters, Japanese Black Trifles, and other heirlooms. Your method is better for those with average soil for sure. Thanks Gary for the education you give us all.

oh...ok, I'm trying to root some suckers for the first time...think I need to change a few things...I just stuck them in pots of compost and put them in a sunny window...they don't seem to be doing much...lol ...I'll go try what you said ~ Thanks for the info! :)

Omg thank you for this!

Been gardening for 35 years and after watching KZfaq videos and seeing this work I wanted to try it. Now I’m like you Gary I have to many tomato plant starts and not enough room!!! This is more addicting than planting tomato seeds. One thing is for sure you can have a good spread out tomato crop using this method.

Yay! You did it!

this is so much easier than growing tomato plants from seeds 😣 so easy

Also you can put it directly into the soil. I already did it and it worked for me on 100% of all the plats. I kept the soil a bit more moist.

great vid thanks!!

Thank you for showing where the suckers are, I wasn't sure I was pulling the right ones off. I didn't know you could transplant them for new plants. I have 7 Jet Star tomato plants that I just found out are hybrids, so I can't use the seeds for new seedlings. I am going out right now and pull some suckers to try this!

Thanks that answered my question

I'm going to do that this year. By the time I get a sucker long enough to pinch off, I should know if I like the tomato!

It really works well.

Awesome stuff. Thanks 🙏🏽.

AND NOW I KNOW ...THANKS GARY

Thanks a lot for the info

Good information thank you

Thank you!

Just did this today with my two giant crimson tomato plants !!! I only have two rare seedlings and I am Trying to get more tomato’s to harvest seeds!

I only started out this year. Built a little 2x2 foot grow area to start my tomatoes early. I started 7 tumbling tom plants which are quickly outgrowing their space and its way too early to plant them out. I may sacrifice 3, let 3 go on, and keep one as a mother plant for when summer really starts

Someone on Ray’s (Praxxus55712) facebook asked about cloning the tomato suckers. I remembered watching this vid a while back and loved it, so I passed it on to that person and others. I must add, my first attempt I put my suckers on the top of my fridge, they rotted instead of rooting. I came back and watched your video again, so I tried again. This time with not much fuss, I chuck them in a bucket of water and put them under my tree. Guess what I had all 8 of them rooted,.. I did the happy dance. Haha! Thanks.

Wow... I never knew it was so easy! Thanks! 😊 I think I've decided to attempt growing cherry tomatoes in containers IF I can find any plants. They seemed to be sold out everywhere but if I can get my hands on at least 2 plants, I'm definitely gonna try this! I'm not sure I get enough sun but it would be so worth it if they'll do well here. I ❤ cherry tomatoes!

I used distilled water and use a little "pH Up" to get the pH to about 6.3. Change the water every few days. You can also add some kind of root stimulant.

We've had the best luck with candyland red cherry tomatoes, got tons of them cut from a single plant this year, but we're also getting some early girl and Cherokee Purple tomatoes too. Ironically our first early girl cutting this year decided to tip over, with a sucker facing straight up, so we cut off the main stem and let the sucker grow as the new "main stem" and got four cuttings (one with an odd branching effect with multiple branches) all from a single pruning, both the planted plants and the cuttings in water are doing great. The candyland red just grows like a weed though, as soon as the roots are established and we add a little homemade fertilizer they turn a rich deep green and shoot up like crazy.

Wow

Just found you one Google+ great channel!

Thank u Sir!

Hmmm. I don't. Might just have been bad luck with the transplant and some root issue. I would try a direct sow in the same spot at this point. Beans grow fast.

Loved That video xD.The system of replant is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ok thanx

ok...this is kool am going to try this right now.....

Thx!🥰

I just rooted some and planted them. After you put them in the little cups in dirt, can they be in sunlight then or still in shade?

Thanks,

Yea I have never had enough time for the suckers to actually fruit given it gets too hot here but just give it 4-5 inches of stalk and put it in soil, sun is still fine and give it a week and it will go go go. I did this for one this year and its stalk is huge, like 5 additional plants in one merged together.

Exactly.

A word of mention. The roots from the fine hairs on the stem👍

I'm extremely lucky in that department. Im in zone 9b, It rarely gets too cold or too hot here. The weather is very consistent. I remember my moms tomatoes would produce well into october. I think we only have a frost every 2-3 years

hey rust, i did ''somewhat'' what you said. how i deviated: i couldn't easily break off the sucker so i cut it with a razor knife. i used a ~10-12'' sucker, the ones you show here are at least 8 or 10 inches, not 6, if i look at your hand. i used an indeterminate type, super sweet cherry 100. i put it in an old 8'' dirty plastic bucket filled with rain barrel greenish water like you show here, about 4 or 5'' of stem submerged, and it rested on the first branch at the cup lip. for past 5 days everything was fine, then yesterday all the leaves shriveled. i though maybe too much sun even though in a shady spot so i put it in full shade. today i looked at it and it wasn't much better. i pulled it out to check for roots, there were none. but there was a clear gooey slime that looked like jelly encapsulating the submerged stem. i rinsed off the goo in the sink with a spray and noticed the outer skin there was gone. the part above the water was fine, so i made a fresh cut to try again. then i notice the plant was putting down roots from the dry area right at the next side branch. so i potted up the plant burying the fresh cut stem and the new roots and part of the lower branch too since it got buried with the rooted area. this should work since i see another vid where they straight planted the fresh cut suckers right in the garden without the rooting in water. i am wondering why the clone failed, i live about 20 miles away from your location, we had three 90+ degree days this week, maybe that triggered it, or maybe it was too big to clone, but i really doubt that theory, since it was trying to root anyway. something went wrong and stem started to get attacked, probably a fungus. i am thinking to use a sterile pot and water next time?

You can also just stick in some potting mix. Tomatoes are strong plants.

I pruned a tomato plant and accidentally cut off a branch that had several flowers on it. I decided to stick it in the ground and just see what happened. I watered it well and it grew nice and big and produced a lot of tomatoes.

thank you sir for this tutorial.. i liked it

Works for all types tomatoes, and they really only have to be about three inches to get this started -or at least that's what I've found.

Going to try this today. Don't want to have to go to Home Depot!

OMG, how did you get yours rooted that fast. I took the ears off my main plants, put in water and it was sitting on the top of my fridge for 10 days. It rotted and died. I am going to try this again. Thanks for the video.

Thanks very much Plant Wicker fit in the water now symptoms of direct sunlight

I am in Queensland, Australia, which would seem to be the perfect growing environment for tomatoes, but I am not getting the rootiing that you are getting.. mine take at least a month. I have followed your instructions, the only difference is that the tomato plant I cloned it from as starved of light. this would slow down the growing process yeah?

yeah any vine plant roots easy, and so do herbs, you can take 3 tomatoes and create a whole field of them.

might try planting mine in 5 gallon buckets from now on. my yields are getting decimated by squirrels. they have found out that if they pick them when they're not ripe, they will get to enjoy them before me.

Just revisited this video...I tried making a clone of my Amana Orange with a sucker that may have been too small...within the same amount of time I got two black krims to grow roots and they are now in soil. The Amana Orange just turned to mush at the bottom...must have been too short and not enough plant to do the kind of work I was asking it to.

Nice video ,wonder if you can do that with fruit trees like avocado tree and mango tree?

Important to note, this doesn't work well with determinate varieties. They have a set plant size and set fruiting season so even if you get more it's not likely to grow full size or give more fruit. Indeterminate varieties are the best to do this with.

Real easy I just cut a branch put in in promix and my co...cup on it for humidity.....week later roots like crazy....no root gell are water just wet soil and cups

Great videos. I'm growing in Lowes buckets also. Did you drill drain holes in your buckets?

Gary Pilchik, Your Cute Dog Deserves Also Mama CailKim Coffee Flavored Delight Pepper Jelly Dish.

If your sucker is flowering, can you still root it? I was pruning and cut one off that had a few flower buds. Can I still use that one as a clone? Thanks!

Do we need to change the water every day

Hi Gary this is not about tomato plants but my bush beans about a month ago i planted some seeds in a start seed container and transplanted them two weeks after they sprouted and grew to a height of about 4inches; they have since dried up although i watered every other day. The temp. is about 30 degrees Celsius. I understand from reading that bush beans like sun but these were not in direct sun. Do you have any idea what could be the problem?