Tomato Plant Propagation Using Suckers and Main Stems

All I ever heard was ‘you gotta get rid of those suckers’.  True, but what are they?  Suckers are duplicate plants erupting at the junction of the upper side of the leaf stem and the main stem.  They truly are new plants, living off of and growing from the main tomato plant.  Each sucker represents a blessing and a curse to the main plant.  A mature sucker, say five to seven inches long, can easily be rooted to form a new tomato plant separate from the donor plant.  Normally they are discarded.  If additional plants are wanted, they can be rooted for a later crop of tomatoes from newly propagated suckers.

Suckers are a curse in that they are prolific and can take away needed nutrients from the main plant.

Suckers are a blessing in that they can become the main stem should the original stem be broken off by weather, or insect damage. All is not lost, a sucker can keep the plant viable and it can recover from an unfortunate accident.  Suckers can be a blessing too through plant propagation, easily weeks to a month ahead of seed production.  Suckers too are bonafide, they are identical to the main donor plant.  Seeds unless heirloom are less reliable at producing an identical plant.

What about main stems?  I recently learned that you can clone a donor plant by using the main stem top.  It cuts the complete top out of the tomato plant as it grows.  The removed main stem acts the same as a sucker at this point, a complete plant less a root structure, certain to die as suckers do, if not treated with kid gloves, but it is by no means difficult.  There are several methods.  One last thing about main stem propagation, why do it?

Well, it’s simple, it’s early in the season, several weeks from putting the plants out for the growing season.  My plants are being cloned removing lower suckers and leaves as I go and the main plant keeps growing, becoming spindley and top heavy.  By nipping the main stem it lowers the height of the plant.  A lower existing sucker will grow quickly to become the main stem again, and in a few weeks I will have two plants once again to put into production.  It felt weird doing it to a new nursery purchased plant.  The clone is in the nursery growing a root system as I write this.  The main plant is putting resources into a lower sucker to become king of the hill, well, the new stem tip for the donor tomato plant.

My method is to cut the sucker or main stem, put the cutting in water, preferably rain water with proper PH, naturally.  I collected two five gallon buckets just for this purpose yesterday.  Next I grab a rockwool grow plug and wet it.   Poking a pencil through the grow plug, I make room for the sucker to go full length into the plug.  I use commercial rooting hormone on the cut end of the stem, then insert it into the grow plugs.  All of the plugged suckers go into a nursery of sorts a bucket, covered with a walmart plastic sack.  That sack lets light in which is good.  The suckers need R and R for about two weeks.  The moisture in the grow plug should be sufficient for rooting.  No direct sunlight or excessive heat is needed, but indoors is best, warm and out of direct sunlight.

I’ve witnessed several other successful methods too.  One is a container with an air bubbler inside.  The suckers are suspended above the grow solution captured by foam plugs through drilled holes in the container lid.  The one I saw was black plastic.  The tiny air bubbles hydrate the air chamber of the sucker nursery by flipping particles of solution upward as bubbles rise and pop through the surface of the water.

Then, a student of mine, from Ohio showed a picture of his rooting machine, a similar bucket system but with a water pump and four spray heads.  The suckers were captured again by foam through holes in the lid and the sprayed water inundates the suckers until roots form.  In all cases this process takes about two weeks.

Thirdly, I hear one can simply lay a sucker in a jar of water and that works, or fourthly one may simply plant the sucker directly in the moist earth and hope for the best, some will root, others will not.  I think the main thing is success is all that is important.  The tomato vine is programmed to reproduce itself, and we are simply creating conditions favorable for that to occur with the greatest frequency.  Failure is rare, success is the norm.

Forevermore, the lowly sucker, is now risen to princely status, as carrier of the DNA jewels of the family, in an asexual sort of way.  Cheers and happy propagating.  Just remember we have to keep the suckers in line or they get to thinking they own the joint.  Cheers, bd

UPDATE, April 9, 2013:  Today I bought a huge tomato plant a Bonnie Celebrity determinate Tomato, more of a bush variety and a hybrid.  Sometimes the hybrids are just the best thing going for production and even good taste, we’ll see.  One of my favorite YouTube favorites mhpgardener is growing Celebrity in one of his Dutch Bucket setups.  I’ve not experienced the variety yet.

Now let me tell you  about the one I bought, it was in a one gallon container and cost a whopping ten bucks which is an expensive plant, but it was huge.  I took ten eight quality suckers from this big Celebrity.  You know the plant is big when they ship with a cane stake in there supporting the vine.  After I finished, the plant looked great, like me with a fresh haircut.  Ha ha.  so in two weeks I should be able to plant a row of Celebrity Tomatoes, we’ll see how it goes.

The mother plant has multiple pods of blooms already.  I’d be amazed if those set fruit after a transplant into a hydroponic setup.  It might be best it’s so large, to put it into an earthbox with potting mix.  I have time to think on that a week or so.  Cheers and happy gardening.