[1st time veg grower]

What is the latest you can do this and get a crop from the new plant bearing in mind my location and that most of the plants will have to eventually live outdoors (they are starting out life in my unheated green house)?

I'm slightly addicted to it but wondering if there's any point now- got loads of little tomato plants romping away! But now the side shoots being produced on my original plants seem much healthier and more sturdy than they did earlier on, so I can't resist potting them up!

I have searched but could only find how to do it and not when to stop!

Thanks.

[JaK]

I missed a trick there! Didn't realise you could do that. 

[DD.]

One of the easiest of cuttings to root, just stick them in a pot and away they go.

[1st time veg grower]

I missed a trick there! Didn't realise you could do that. 

Trust me, next year you'll wish you didn't know again!

One of the easiest of cuttings to root, just stick them in a pot and away they go.

This is why its so addictive! That and my dislike of waste - I can't bear to throw away anything but especially seedlings if they are growing - now in my brain, sideshoots are no longer sideshoots they are potential plants...

But should I stop now?

[Lardman]

Trust me, next year you'll wish you didn't know again!

That's so true !!

I can't compost them either - I potted 2 up this morning.  I think its really pushing it now, most will take 60 days to produce fruit which makes it early October before they viable. My main crop are very poor this year so Im hoping I can remove them early and replace with the side shoots and get a late crop. Thats the plan anyway. 

[1st time veg grower]

I think its really pushing it now, most will take 60 days to produce fruit which makes it early October before they viable.

That's useful to know - thankyou. Think the ones I potted up recently will eventally end up on a windowsill indoors then!

[cooperman]

if you pop the side shoots into a jam jar of water only they will start to throw out little roots very quickly and then you can pot up, but why bother??  you'll have 100's

[Growster...]

Marvellous!

Never knew you could do that! We always chuck ours, unless they're near the top, when we let them become the last truss in a 'v' form.

[DD.]

It not worth bothering with a jam jar of water. They root in a few days in a pot of moist compost.

Don't worry if they go floppy, they soon pick up.

[sunshineband]

It even works in the greenhouse soil if is is damp enough 

I found out about this last year and have given masses of the 'cuttings' to friends and family and children at school too this year 

[1st time veg grower]

It not worth bothering with a jam jar of water. They root in a few days in a pot of moist compost.

I don't bother with the water either - they root so easily I can't see the point personally.

I first saw the idea in a video and was racking my brain trying to think where it was and then I remembered:
http://www.allotment-garden.org/allotment-tips/tomato-sideshoots.php

 

if you pop the side shoots into a jam jar of water only they will start to throw out little roots very quickly and then you can pot up, but why bother??  you'll have 100's

Why bother? Personally because you get extra plants for free, and thus more tomatoes in the end...I hope!

[purplebean]

Why bother? Personally because you get extra plants for free, and thus more tomatoes in the end...I hope!

Also if you start your toms too early, as many seem to, then you can pot up the side shoots and throw away the original leggy plants. Assuming they produce side shhots that is, this year my son brought a plant pot home from playscheme in February two tomatoes germinated and refused to produce any side shoots at all

[Springlands]

I planted six yesterday - if they produce more tomatoes that will be good - if not it did not take much time and energy to plant them.

[Lardman]

It also saves those expensive F1 seeds for next year and provides you with more plants if you only have a few seeds from an exchange.

I experimented with compost vs water last year, my completely unscientific tests put moist compost at the top of rooting mediums.

[A. Fallowfield]

Well, that's a new one on me!
Gonna have to try it!