Cloning Your Tomato Plant

Inspired by the Urban Organic Gardener, and continuing in the mad gardenist vein, I'm cloning a tomato plant! MWUAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I'd forgotten you can root tomato suckers, preferably the strong ones that you've missed pruning for a few weeks. This is also a way to get a FREE tomato plant and extend your harvest :) Here I'm rooting a Yellow Pear sucker... I think.... I'm pretty sure... I should've labelled the darn thing :/

To root suckers: pick a good one :9 One that looks fairly thick and strong, growing good looking leaves. Cut it from the parent plant as long as possible, removed the lower 2 or 3 leaf branches (NOT all of them, it will still need to photosynthesize). If it's already got flower/fruit clusters on it, snip them off so they don't divert energy from growing a root system. Place the sucker in water as deep as you can, without getting any leaves underwater. The stem will begin sprouting roots within a few days, it's cool to look at. make sure to keep the water as fresh as you can, change it every couple of days at least so it doesn't stagnate. After it's grown several new roots a couple inches long it can be transplanted. Put it as deep as you can into it's new soil, removing more leaf branches if they're going to be below the soil level. Any extra stem that is buried will also grow roots and create a stronger root system. Keep the soil moist of course, be prepared to baby the plant a few days until it's acclimated to its new home.

I've been told you can also dip suckers in rooting serum which is a hormone to super-stimulate new root growth and often used for woody cuttings like herbs, it will give the plant an extra boost to sprout roots more quickly. Never tried it myself, tomato suckers root well enough on their own that I don't feel like spending the $$ on it.

July Bloom Day 2010

This Bloom Day I decided to focus just on the flowers growing in my person container garden in the backyard. I'm quite surprised to see how many there despite the orignal plans to keep it purely edibles.

Sweet alyssum "Oriental Nights"

Lemon cucumber

Poppy "Iceland Nudicaule Blend" - did taunt me :9

Parlsey "Italian Flat Leaf" - loving how this and dill and fennel look like mini fireworks!

Heliotrope - kept well away from my Felis silvestris catus "Nomsalot"

Lobelia "Cambridge Blue" and alyssum "Oriental Nights"

A miniature rose (from the 99 Cent Store!) ravages by caterpillars but still blooming :)

Another shot of the parsley

Nasturtium "Alaska"

Summer squash "Early White Scallop"

Sweet pepper "Canary Bell" - the foliage on these are so lush dark green, I'm anxious to see how the yellow peppers will look on it!

And finally, hopefully, the future Bloom Days of my garden...

On another note, at last I've been able to order a camera to replace my lost one! I expect to be taking purty pics again within two weeks - the next Bloom Day should be an excellent one!

(sorry cell cam, you've served well, but you were only a temp)

Dividing my Thyme

Dividing herbs is a task I've had in the back of my mind for a few weeks. It's typically supposed to be done in late fall or early spring so I hear, but my green children are in a healthy condition and I'd like to clone some of them. Actually I'd like to clone anything that doesn't require a lab, purchasing new equipment or cause protestors to hang out in front of my house :)

So there's my first vic.... *ehem* specimen, Lemon Thyme. As you can see its branches were already pretty well separated into two nearly equal portions - less work for me!

So here it is out of its original pot, and the two pots it's going to be divided and planted into.

The dividing was also easy since I did it when the roots had just started to reach the pot walls and wrap around. If it had been root-bound already I probably would have had to dig all over for a proper pruning saw. In this case I used the purty coping saw.

And there ya go, my fresh clones, two plants for the price of one! Thyme seems to have been a good choice, this was done about a week ago and both are doing great, no visible shock. I'll be giving one as a gift in the near future.

If anyones interested in which herbs are good for dividing or rooting cuttings from here's a good post on the topic by The Cheap Vegetable Gardener