Useful accessories for early suckering include a bread tray lined with old qt. boxes, a bunch of tags and a marker. These early suckers can translate to a marketable plant in just 4 weeks when propagated.

Sure, they will have blossoms at ground level in some cases but they can be removed.

Good idea, I have done that before to replace some plants that I was short of, but not to resell.

Only problem is some of my favorite plants aren't the ones people are looking for. I can't get some to look past Celebrity and Jet Star.

You might be surprised of the requests for cherry tomatoe plants or others once you start bringing fruit to markets. I'll agree that most people have not even heard of many greenhouse types but it you interject that seed costs are over $1 per seed for certain varieties then some people will gain interest on those varieties.

I've been surprised by the follow up requests for certain varieties in consecutive years and by the distances that some people will travel to purchase rare varieties. I don't propagate det. varieties like Celebrity but have purposely started seed of those for plant sales and my own field planting. Often a customer will be willing to try a comparable newer variety if you can show them an advantage in disease resistance, flavor or productivity.

I agree. I grow lots of plants to sell, but I sell some heirlooms and cheaper hybrids because of seed costs. If I have extras of the varieties I grow, I do pot them up and sell those too. Some people are willing to try, others not so much.

I do great at market with all my weird heirlooms and OP varieties of tomato plants. The stranger the name, the more I like them: Dwarf Tasmanian Chocolate, Dancing with Smurfs, and Cosmonaut Volkov are just a few of my favorites. I have about a hundred different varieties going in the greenhouse right now. In peak garden-planting season, I sell a few extra plants through craigslist.

Do you ship plants purchased on Craigslist? I was surprised to hear that one firm producing grafted tomato plants is actually cutting a slip of the plants, cut below the graft for mass shipment. Naturally the recipient must be willing to handle the slips.

I don't, no. I use craigslist to get customers to drive out to my greenhouse.

I'm also counting on nonconventional tomato names for market sales. I have 200 additional varieties that need transplanted very soon for our peak spring plant sales on early May. Since most are in 4- 48 cell trays, one variety per cell I only have between 5 & 15 plants of any single variety. By propagating plants from suckers there is no limit to number of new plants. This week I've started close to 300 cuttings- but these have more normal names.

i suckered the plants just now. 2 weeks behind jay. the indeterminate hybrids in the other tunnel look to be ahead of the indeterminates/heirlooms.

I got all my posts/stakes up last Friday night, worked till 11:30 pm to get it done (started at 9:30pm). Too many things going on right now and last weekend was packed. I have a tour for County Extension agents on Thursday and I am no where even close to ready for that (my self imposed expectations)!

It is going to be an extremely busy 3 afternoon, evening and nights.

I save my own seeds and then trade for new varieties. Here is my list of fruiting veggie varieties. I favor landraces and heirlooms.

eggplant, Diamond

eggplant, Ping Tung

eggplant, prosperosa

eggplant, pumpkin pepper

eggplant, Rosa Bianca

gourds, small mixed

ground cherry

hot pepper, African Surprise

hot pepper, Aji Amarillo

hot pepper, anaheim

hot pepper, Ancho

hot pepper, apricot bhut

hot pepper, bishop's crown

hot pepper, cayenne

hot pepper, choc bhut

hot pepper, devil's tongue

hot pepper, habanero

hot pepper, habanero choc

hot pepper, Jalapeno

hot pepper, jaluv an attitude

hot pepper, Laotian

hot pepper, lemon

hot pepper, Numex

hot pepper, Satan's kiss

hot pepper, serrano

hot pepper, Shishito

hot pepper, Siling Haba

hot pepper, Thai

hot pepper, Trinidad Scorp

melon mix

melon, cantaloupe

melon, Charentais

melon, collective farm woman

melon, Delicious 51

melon, early hanover

melon, gnadenfeld

melon, hale's best

melon, hearts of gold

melon, honey rock

melon, honeydew

melon, retato degli

melon, rich sweetness

melon, Sugar salmon

pepper, Aconcagua

pepper, Ancient Sweets

pepper, banana

pepper, Cal Wonder

pepper, chocolate

pepper, di senise

pepper, donkey ears

pepper, Frank's

pepper, Gold Cal

pepper, lipstick

pepper, Marconi red

pepper, Marconi yellow

pepper, mini belle

pepper, Odessa Market

pepper, purple bell

pepper, staddons select

pepper, ta tong

pepper, yum yum
yellow

squash, acorn

squash, black forest

squash, Burgess

squash, butternut mix

squash, celebration

squash, Cinderella

squash, delicata

squash, dumpling

squash, Golden Delicious

squash, Kakai

squash, Long of Naples

squash, Luxury Pie

squash, marina

squash, Musque

squash, ponco baby

squash, red kuri

squash, Seminole

squash, spaghetti

squash, strawberry crown

squash, sweet meat

squash, Thelma Sanders

squash, uncle David's dakota dessert

summer squash, golden scallop

summer squash, Jackpot

summer squash, lemon

summer squash, mixed

summer squash, Zephyr

summer squash, zuc

tomato, Al-Kuffa

tomato, Amish Paste

tomato, Apricot Brandywine

tomato, Azoychka

tomato, black cherry

tomato, black from tula

tomato, Budenovka

tomato, Caspian Pink

tomato, Catwell

tomato, cherokee green

tomato, cosmonaut Volkov

tomato, Crnkovic Yugoslvian

tomato, Demidov

tomato, Dubrava

tomato, Ernie's Plump

tomato, Iditarod Red

tomato, JD Texas

tomato, Jersey Devil

tomato, Jersey Giant

tomato, KBX

tomato, malachite box

tomato, Matt's Wild

tomato, Mc Clintock

tomato, missouri pink love

tomato, Mountain Princess

tomato, northern lights

tomato, Opalka

tomato, paste mix

tomato, Paul Robeson

tomato, pink beefsteak

tomato, Pink Berkeley

tomato, pink bumble bee

tomato, pink cherry

tomato, Polish Linguisa

tomato, principe

tomato, purple bumble bee

tomato, rose amish

tomato, ruby gold

tomato, ruby treasure

tomato, San Marzano

tomato, Stupice

tomato, Sungold F3

tomato, Sunrise bumble bee

tomato, sweet Beverley

tomato, sweet brown

tomato, tree, pink

tomato, Trifele

watermelon, black seeded ice cream

watermelon, BTM X Crim

watermelon, crimson sweet

watermelon, Crimsonx BTM

watermelon, early Canada

watermelon, golden midget

watermelon, moon &stars

watermelon, moon&stars yellow

So, I know it is possible to plant the tomato suckers, I've just never done it. Do you just cut them off and stick them in the soil, because that is what I did today. All my HH tomatoes were needing suckered bad, and I figured I'd try. Some were bigger than others, and I trimmed the biggest leaves off to reduce transpiration water loss. I felt like they would dry up and die in no time, but it seems like most of them did fine in the tray through the afternoon. A few were wilty, but not bad. Just keep them well watered?

Some tomato plants are setting fruit now. I was hoping for toms by Memorial weekend. Got another offer to buy them from a much closer restaurant. Might be able to work something there.

There are a few things I do that make propagation rate close to 100%. One is to immediately move newly inserted suckers to a dark room for 48 hours. Then we move them to less intense Lighting for a week (in our case we have shop lights setup inside).

You could use any container but I use the 48 cell trays. Usually I'll fill the 6-packs in the tray with media, water it well and poke a hole in the center of each cell with a nail. That way everything is ready for the operation when suckers are harvested. I trim most to 4-5" long and snip dangling leaves as you did, then just insert the stem and pinch soil around it. Don't forget to label. After completing a tray which takes less than 5 min. For a tray of 48 I rewater the tray with a sprinkling can and move it to my dark basement. Yesterday I did 6 trays early in the morning, then went back over my established plants to remove additional suckers and clip growing stems to stringline. You might remove every visible sucker one day and a few days later the plants are loaded with them again.

yes, they do come on quick. Sounds like I did about the same, apart from putting them in the dark. It's a cold rainy day out there and they are doing fine for now. If I get motivated enough I'll bring them in tonight. I didn't label the parent plants when I planted them out. I've got a pretty good idea whats what, but not sure on a few of them. I made sure to mix and match them into six cell packs that I'll market as an heirloom mix. A number of my customers buy random mixes anyway and I do price breaks at 6 plants. Thanks.