Very nice! I have done the same thing, but put them in the potting medium so that they had a lot less stem. Basically buried them up to the last leaves I left, and I started with a shorter cutting. But since you only have a couple of weeks to go now, that is probably just fine.

Bets

Hi Bets! My thinking was - the more stem buried, the more overall roots they should develop. I've never done this before and I was warned that my cuts may have been too big and I left on too many leaves. But since I'd basically already written off these cuts, the mad scientist in me took over. I also think the root stimulator is helping. I'll start hardening these guys off this weekend when the weather calms down. I'll post pics of how the 4-week rooting experiment finally shakes out when I slip them out of their cups at plant-out time. I'm really hyped! :-D
Kris

Looking good! It really is a no-fail method. ;) The larger cuttings just take a little longer to bounce back. Would you agree now that these are going to be much better transplants than what you had to work with before?

Dave

Dave - oh most assuredly. I didn't WANT those tall gangly plants I had 10 days ago. My only concern was if I could save any of them. I'm confident these rootings will turn out to be fine plants in the end. I think a lot of my success (with the longer, leafier cuttings) in large part came from using the warming tray. And the root stimulator. Anyway, it's fun. And gives me an excuse to STILL not clean up the basement...;-D

I certainly would not hesitate to do this again. In fact, I'm looking forward to trying this with some suckers...! :-D

Kris

I've tried rooting suckers, but made some mistakes and lost most. I'll copy your methods.
Did you just toss the original plants? I think they would have made a good recovery and given you extra plants. Your thoughts?

Y'know, tomatobob, I DID consider cutting those plants back to the bottom set of leaves and maybe letting them sucker from the junctions, but I already had WAY too many tomato plants thanks to lots of gift seeds this year. I mean honestly, did I really need more than 56 plants? For one person? LOL But yes, I'm betting I could have made 30 more plants. And then I would DEFINITELY have needed some kind of intervention... Still - there's always NEXT year down in the (woohaha) basement plant lab. ;-D
Kris

I lost the top to a Sweet Million yesterday due to high winds. Cut the top off and trimmed it down some with a razor blade. Planted it directly into a small pot with MG soil. Saturated the soil. It was really limp last night, this morning it was perked up and ready to go. This happened last year too. I had good results with that one. I leave them in the shade outside for about a week or 10 days till it can get a root structure going.

The one I cut yesterday was twice the size of the one I cut a year ago. I was nervous that it might not work.

wow...cool...keep us updated! =) How many nodes did each of your cuttings have? I might yank a bit off a Cherry tomato plant and try this just for fun.

Oh gosh, tn veggie gardener, I didn't look. I just made sure that my cut was about a half-inch under a junction within the length I was shooting for. So prolly just one of those in each cup. Dave said only suckers or growing tips would root into plants, so that's what I did.
Kris

Coolio...almost all of my mater plants are currently growing the tips, so I could probably cut off one like you did & it would do fine.

Go for it!

I had a cut worm cut a black plum tomato down. Only had one black plum so had to replant with another tomato. After the black plum was cut down, I stuck the top into the soil and moved the remaining root system. Now I have two black plums and the other tomato. First time I ever gained plants when a cut worm took one out. Oh very nice pictures Kris I enjoyed your post.

Thanks, maternut. So, how are the 2 black plums faring? Are they filling out normally, etc. I'd like to hear about their production as the season progresses...:-D
Kris