Hey all,
Thought I'd post some pictures of an experiment I'm conducting in an attempt to keep my favorite variety alive through propagation over winter.
1 - Root cuttings in
water. Takes 10-14 days.
2 - Plant cutting in potting mix and wait for new growth to start. Usually another week.
3 - Trim plant back to first leaf node. This removes of all the old foliage, which usually doesn't bounce back from the rooting stage.
4 - End result. Healthy, freshly propagated cutting of the parent plant.
I've found that this method is a good way to keep this variety (Sun Gold) of indeterminate
tomato alive and healthy throughout the winter. It would be easy to continually cut and propagate multiple varieties all winter long in a small space and I've found it easier than starting seeds. The cutting, rooting and pruning all seems to slow down the normally vigorous habits of indeterminate tomatoes enabling me to keep more in less space.
I plant to cut ~12" plants into sections approximately 3 weeks prior to the last frost date, which
should yield 4-6 plants for transplant. I'll take a cutting from each of the transplants by topping as soon as I finish planting them to ensure I have back-up in case a late frost zaps my first wave. Cuttings also seem to set
fruit more quickly than plants of a similar size/age grown from
seed so that certainly tips the scales even further in favour of managing cuttings throughout the winter.
I'm not sure how well this would work with other varieties but I'll be trying out a few more before spring - Cosmonaut Volkov & Hawkes Bay Yellow for sure.