David WE Roberts wrote:
Tomatoes are one of the easiest plants to propogate via cuttings.
If you let a side shoot grow to a sturdy size instead of pinching it out,
then cut it out carefully with a knife and plant it in very moist compost
then you will very quickly get another tomato plant.

As I said, I tried this (half heartedly) last year, but the new plant didn't
come to anything. Maybe it needed more damp.

If you go away for a few weeks then come back you may even find side shoots
which have set fruit.
These still seem to propogate fine.

Now that's interesting. I've felt sad before at cutting off side shoots
that have got as far as flowers. It feels ... mean. Perhaps in future I
will keep a pot of damp soil to stick them into, then they get a fighting
chance.

It does occur to me that if you start tomatoes off really early under glass
then you can get an additional 'free' set of plants to plant outside later
in the year.

My earliest tomatoes (sown in January, indoors) did really badly. Idon't
know if they caught a draft, suffered from poor soil, or didn't get enough
light, but even though the packets all said from January under glass,
everyone I spoke to was basically very "I told you so" about it.
March sowings are doing much better.

On a slight side note, at what point do people find it's best to transplant
to grow bags? Some of mine are starting to get to the size I would expect
to be fine (about 6-9" tall) and I was thinking of putting the first few in
this weekend, but I can't remember when we normally do it.