CLONE A TOMATO PLANT

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  1. Cloning a piece of a mature plant hastens fruiting. The parent plant is already mature so the clone/cutting is also mature. 
  2. Sterilize* pots. Fill pots with sterile potting soil mix*. 
  3. Soak soil thoroughly with water. Sterilize* 
  4. clipping/snipping tool(s).
  5. Select a healthy, disease-free, indeterminate tomato plant that you would like to clone. An indeterminate grows indefinitely until cold, insects, nematodes, or disease kills it. Determinate plants grow to a certain size and stop growing. 
  6. Clip tip sections of tomato stems in at least 3 inch lengths (up to 2 feet if their are suckers at 
  7. all the nodes). A sucker (auxiliary bud) is a growth coming from the “crotch” area between the 
  8. leaf stem (petiole) and the node. A node is the point on the stem where leaves develop. 
  9. Start making cuttings:
  10. Clip the tip section with the shoot apex/terminal 
  11. bud about 1 inch below the node. Shoot apex/terminal bud is the place where new growth comes from. If you cut this off, the plant is doomed. 
  12. Make more cuttings:
  13. Clip sections of the remaining internodes (stem) into smaller sections as follows: clip the stem closely to the the “crotch” area (top cut), clip the stem about 1 inch below the node (bottom cut).
  14. Trim the tips of the leaf/leaves so that the cutting spends more time making roots than growing larger. Make sure not to cut off the shoot apex/terminal bud. 
  15. Gently trim off any inflorescence (flowers) so that the cutting spends all its efforts on making roots. 
  16. Dip the bottom cut into the rooting hormone and tap to remove excess.
  17. With a pencil point, make indentations into the soil in the mini pots. Place cutting, 
  18. rooting hormone down, into the soil. Press soil firmly around the base of the cutting. Water lightly again. Move to a warm, semi-shaded area. 
  19. Do not allow cuttings to dry out. Press finger gently into soil daily to check on moisture content.
  20. Gradually move plants into full sun when roots are extending outside of the pot. 

*Sterilize with a mix of 10% bleach and 90% water.

**See Karen’s Potting Soil.