Because there is a much simpler way. Simply snip off a growing tip or a sucker from an existing plant, root it in damp potting mix for a week or so and transplant it to the garden.

Many discussions here about how to "root cuttings". Many of us do it on a regular basis each year for extra or replacement plants. No need for anything so complex as tomato stems readily sprout roots.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Rooting cuttings discussions

I'm assuming you need to take blossoms off as they develop until the plant reaches a normal, larger size if you want a normal yield?

I'm assuming you need to take blossoms off as they develop until the plant reaches a normal, larger size if you want a normal yield?

That wouldn't hurt. However, the plant has its own wisdom, and usually won't set fruit it can't support ... or sometimes will set tiny fruit but keep them in stasis until the root system is large enough.

In other words, even with a clone, the DTM from the time the clone is planted in the ground until you have ripe fruit will be pretty much what you'd expect from any "normal" seedling.

I'm assuming you need to take blossoms off as they develop until the plant reaches a normal, larger size if you want a normal yield?

Proper cuttings wouldn't have any blooms on them anyway. If some develop later it is your choice to remove them or not but it sure isn't required for any reason.

Once a cutting is removed from the mother plant it is its own person, err plant. :)

Dave

I clone tomatoes every year as my fall harvest plants. Select the plants that are obviously the most healthy to start with and root in anything from potting soil to water in a glass vase. Some will take, others won't. Transplant out when good root development is evident. As has been pointed out, these are now babies that will take time to mature, so collect them and start them in view of your frost date. Ate my last clone tomato a couple of days ago..

As mentioned, CLONING in this case is just propagation by rooting any cutting. I do that mostly with store bough basil, shiso, mint and few other things, instead of growing from seed.

I clip a 3-4 inch tip growth, remove any new bloom truss if there is one, allow to hydrate in a glass of water for an hour or the day, then set cutting in a small pot of potting/seed starting mix, and within a week it has rooted.

I kept one indoors through our 8 month winter, just to try as an experiment. The cuttings I took from it in the spring grew just as well as the mother plant did the summer before. I did this because I'd developed a mistrust with packet seeds in that what I'd grown from the packet description was not what I had growing in the ground! My space is limited and tight, so I want to be sure if I am growing a specific variety, that is what I get.

I could not do it this past winter, some kind of blight attacked the plant mid summer and I did not think it wise to try to keep a less than perfectly healthy specimen over the long winter.