Usually, yes, although I have had tomatoes broken off at ground level which did not recover. If it is growing within a couple of weeks after being cut off, you should be fine. If not, no.

Carla in Sac

thanks, should i also be watering these stumps?

I would say to keep them watered. They need that to grow...they are still alive under there so keep them hydrated.

connordub-

I was glad to find your post. I'm planning on fall planting some heirloom tomatoes this year. I haven't read much encouragement on this site about fall planting of tomatoes bigger than cherries. So, I'd like to pick your brain on the methods that made your venture successful. I just started the seeds yesterday and am thinking of raised beds. When did you transplant your tomatoes? Any other suggestions you have? Thanks!

I haven't read much encouragement on this site about fall planting of tomatoes bigger than cherries.

I find that very surprising as many of the regulars here plant fall crops every year and discuss it often. We may not be in AZ true, so planting times and varieties used may be quite different, but many different varieties should serve you well there. Cherry varieties sure wouldn't be the first choice of many of us at any time of the year. ;)

One often discussed approach to fall tomato growing is using clones (rooted cuttings) from existing plants rather than starting new ones from seeds or cutting to ground. Easier and gets you much faster results.

Dave

This relates to my post a bit earlier about fall tomatoes. The idea of regenerating cherry tomato plants by cutting them down is pretty interesting. I'm not sure I'd want to cut back to 5-6 inches, as I'd think having some leaves left is helpful to survival of the plant. My plants had 6-7 foot stems (all bent over after the fruits started forming). I'm going to cut those back to the halfway mark, water carefully, and see what happens. Maybe even throw some nitrogen-rich stuff on top to encourage foliage.

Did they grow back after cutting back? I am considering this for 40 plants in my greenhouse...don't ask :)

my neighbors trailer house burnt down and took out my garden. My question is will my tomato come back. It is still green on the stems. and some leaves are still green. I took off all the burnt leaves and burnt tomatos.

What about Broccoli? The fire was hot enough to burn there leaves.

was there a lot of water runoff from the fire? if the roots aren't damaged and has a good stem still attached then they will come back.

i'm not sure if there are harmful chemicals that leech from the water in a fire (ie from things that melted/burnt). if there is a lot of water that came from the fire then you might want to find that out, specifically from the fire department. only good thing might be from from burnt burnt wood ash is it contains a good amount of phosphorous.