Snapped tomato plants!

DEBTMONKEY1A

Cheap greenhouse collapse...net result-2 tom plants (not flowered yet).....with main growin stalks broken off...healthy side shoots....will they grow or do I bin them??!

stilernin

DEBTMONKEY1A wrote: »

Cheap greenhouse collapse...net result-2 tom plants (not flowered yet).....with main growin stalks broken off...healthy side shoots....will they grow or do I bin them??!

The side shoots will definitely grow on, but as they will now be 'behind' I would select just one to become the leader, pinching out the rest.

If this was a clean break, I would take any flowers off the snapped off part (perhaps leaving the uppermost ones if they are only in bud) and plant it up to its neck in fresh compost. Keep damp but not wet, particularly the surface compost near the stem. Bottom watering is best until roots form from the stem.

Two plant from one! Bargain!

misskool

Yes, the wind snapped one of my in the ground tomato plant. I went in, got some micropore tape. Taped what I could together, piled a mix of compost + clay soil and watered. It's fine now and still growing.

The sideshoots can be stuck in some damp compost and left to grow. They root and will flower soon after the main plant (brucie bonus)

DEBTMONKEY1A

Sorry to be thick....does that mean my tomatos will carry on growing (no flowers produced)...even if I don't 'replant' side shoots? I've thrown the top bits away....

stilernin

DEBTMONKEY1A wrote: »

Sorry to be thick....does that mean my tomatos will carry on growing (no flowers produced)...even if I don't 'replant' side shoots? I've thrown the top bits away....

No you're not being thick. Gardening has a vocabulary of its own that we all use without thinking.

Just leave the bottom half of the plant and it will carry on growing and will produce flowers then fruit. Because it now has to do this from side shoots (these will appear in the angles between a leaf and the stem) it has been delayed.

When you see some side shoots, decide which looks the strongest/biggest and then carefully snap off all the other side shoots (carefully push them sideways and they will come away). The one that remains will carry on upwards.

All of this assumes it is the sort of tomato that is trained as a cordon, if it is a bush variety, it can just be left to do its own thing with no pinching out.

DEBTMONKEY1A

Well have put all my plants ON THE FLOOR in my plastic greenhouse (!)....dare not put ANYTHING on the shelves....so my 2 poor tomatos-lovingly grown from seed (!) with snapped off stems are outside of greenhouse (bought 2 more small tomato plants-they're in greenhouse now-survival of the fittest!!!)....

Stilernin...
does 'trained as a corden' mean in a pot on it's own? It's certainly not a bush tomato..(type is cerise cherry tomato)


Thanks for helping me as I'd have binned them (!)....1 more question...should I give them a good 'miracle grow' feed OR some bone/blood granules (which i can work into top bit of the pot soil & water in) to help them & will they be ok outside?? The type is Cherry Tomato Cerise...My patio gets sun from 2-30 onwards....a bit windy & about 450 foot up in pennines (!)....can't really afford another small plastic greenhouse to protect them (!!)

P.S.-Please tell me I was RIGHT to bin off my cheyenne chilli plants with a snapped main stem (they were just flowering!)...surely they wouldn't have survived???!!

stilernin

Sorry, it's the vocabulary thing again

Cordon = 1 stem ( tied to and supported by canes, posts, string) with leaves and trusses (bunches) of flowers coming off it. It will try to grow sided shoots (which would make it a bush) but we remove them as they appear (pinching out).

Bush = what it 'says on the tin'. Just leave it to do it's own thing.

Both of the above have even fancier names which you could check out on t'interweb during a winter's evening when you can't get out into the garden.

Feed? Not really necessary at the moment if they have only been in new compost for a couple of weeks. Too much feed will make them shoot up and be a bit flabby.

Windy site? I have tomatoes in pots and use three 5' canes for secure support. Cane 1 goes behind the plant and is the one the plant is tied to; it is vertical. Canes 2 & 3 are approx 4" to each side (and a bit in front 'cos its a round pot); I push them straight down and then draw the tops towards the centre one. I tie all three together. 2&3 are now supporting 1. I realise this is a bit of a faff and more expensive, but a tomato plant is really heavy at the end of the season.

Chilli plant? You don't want to hear this, but I would have given it a chance. It would probably have thrown out new shoots and some more flowers. I tend to work on the principle that it is the plants whole purpose in life to reproduce, so it will do everything it can to that end. Can you get it out of the bin? (I would )

Phew, sorry for so much to read.

Shout if I've not been clear.

DEBTMONKEY1A

Thanks SO MUCH! My 1st year doing this-have a lovely patio (allbeit no sun till 2-30pm) & garden-lived in a town centre flat before...so LEARNING big time! Last question (!) will the cerise (broken ones!) be ok outside??? Too late for the chilli plants but have 10 plants inside on a sunny window in BIG pots & still a few healthy (1st chillis appearing!) pots on the floor in the greenhouse!

stilernin

They should be fine outside. They could be a bit slow to get going if they've not been outside before.

To get any crop off them, I would stop them after two trusses. That is as well as taking out any side shoots, you take out the leader (top shoot) as well. It will then put all it's energy into the fruit it has. They are likely to be very late as they are so behind now, but I always give plants a chance, as you might have gathered :rotfl::rotfl:

Whatever you do, just have fun. It is addictive though I'm afraid.

DEBTMONKEY1A

Cheers.....will keep fingers crossed! I have ONE healthy cerise in greenhouse....& the 2 broken ones outside....my G/F LOVES the seet taste of cherry toms....I prefer the bigger ones! Have put in Shirley (1 plant) & gold something or other (normal size-ripens to yellow/gold) small pots into buckets in greenhouse-fingers crossed they'll do ok!:T