It'll probably heal if the stem didn't break all the way through. Is it an indeterminate tomato? If your repair should "fail", indeterminates will grow other limbs as suckers and continue growing as though the main stem wasn't broken. If your plant is determinate, it also might heal but if not, it probably won't be as productive as it might have been.

When I break them I stick them in water and they will regrow roots in only a few days, then I pot them up and let them develope a root system before planting out again. It beats starting over from seed. If your patch doesn't work and it starts to wilt badly, I recommend salvaging it in water.

Diakon,

This year I broke several tomato stems.

One Merced broke when I was transporting it home from Texas in the trunk with my luggage. I rooted the broken off top in water and planted it in a pot for a month then into the garden. It's doing better than the Merced that didn't break.

Okay ... I broke off another seedling when it was about 8" tall ... broke it off about halfway up but not completely off ... only left a little hinge of skin on one side of the stem. I taped it up with ordinary masking tape. I stuck the tape down on the table and peeled it up a couple of times to get about half the stickum off the tape so it wouldn't stick to the plant too bad. I left it that way for a week or so, and the plant healed back up fine. Now that it's in the garden it just has a lump there were the scar is.

Okay now ... a fellow sent me some plants from Louisville and the post office broke off three of the tops. Broke them off near the root crown. I just potted them up as is with the roots and whatever inch or two stem was left outta the ground and now they have sprouted new branches and made new growing tips.

Good luck with whichever way you go with it.

It may sound silly, but you can try rigging a "splint" onto it until it can heal back again. Just line up a popsicle stick on each side of the break and use some electrical tape to wrap around it. That way, the stem can stay stiff and straight while it works on growing back together again. Believe me, just tying up in place doesn't work well because any decent gust of wind will end up bending it back down again.

If the break was too sharp or severe, then I doubt it will be able to heal again though--since the vascular system that carries the water and food to and from the plant won't be able to maintain its turgor pressure and will just end up like a leaking garden hose until the broken part ends up going limp and dying off.

It's worth giving it a shot though. I personally always feel sad whenever my own plants get hurt and try to do whatever I can to patch them back up again.

Thanks folks for the sympathy and good advice. I just got a perfect excuse to eat a popsicle.

Here's a picture of it after the procedure. Thanks! It's an indetermined, a cherry tomato called Besser.

Here is a link that might be useful: