[oldgrunge]

Sometime back I heard Bob Flowerdew advocate growing tomato plants from side shoot cuttings. Apart from getting free plants, it's supposed to give a more vigorous plant.
Has anyone tried this, and with what results?

[sunshineband]

I don't know about being more vigorous, but you can certainly grow new plants from sideshoot cuttings. I root them in a glass of water and then pot them up. Easy peasy ☺

[mumofstig]

I don't think I've imagined it (perhaps you can check what happens with your side shoot cuttings) but they seem to fruit earlier, without the usual long length of stem before the first truss.

[tangojulie]

I do this all the time. I used to take the side shoots when they were quite short, but I've found that it doesn't seem to make much difference how long you let them grow. They seem to do better for me if they're relatively long. Just root them in water and then plant them as deep as you can in their pots.

They do seem to make less lanky plants but I think that may be more to do with light levels - the cuttings are necessarily grown later than the mother plants.

F1 tomato seed seems to keep for a long time so I start just a couple of plants from seed (less trouble to find them a home early in the year) and the rest from cuttings, keeping the rest of the seed for another year. If conditions are right you can get really early toms from the mother plants, followed by the rest at a more normal time. And if they're not you still get the normal crop so there's nothing to lose.

[Goneterseed]

I dont bother putting them in water. I just pop them straight into the compost and keep them moist. They've always taken for me.

[Headgardener22]

Taking off the sideshoots and potting them up works for me. (Even more plants). I don't think they grow faster than the parent plant, more they extend the season.

(I tried keeping plants overwinter - but failed because I left them in the unheated greenhouse too long - my guess is that if you grew tomatoes from sideshoots from overwintered tomatoes they would come earlier than seed).

[Growster...]

Here's a recent bit on the subject, Old.

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=123001.0

They're still going well, and on advice from chums here, the flowers were taken off to let the three plants develop.

[oldgrunge]

I don't think I've imagined it (perhaps you can check what happens with your side shoot cuttings) but they seem to fruit earlier, without the usual long length of stem before the first truss.

Those were the other benefits I couldn't remember.