How to Clone Plants
Most people who love plants want one thing; more plants. One of the easiest ways to do this with tomatoes is to clone them. This morning, our third grade classes here and in Seattle got to learn about cloning plants.
Tomatoes are easy to clone. In most varieties tomato plants develop what growers call "suckers".
Tomato plants grow from the top, spreading up and out like a volcano. The older leaves at the bottom form branches and in the elbow of those branches as it extends from the main stem or trunk, suckers form.
Left alone, they will form another branch that will essentially become another plant. There are conflicting ideas on whether they should be removed at all. Plants get their energy from the sun and the more methods of getting that energy, the better so some people say leave them. Some people think they should be removed because with the energy that they draw in, those suckers also use. Many feel that aggressive pruning puts more of the plant's energy into forming fruit. Depending on your goals, do what you like.
If you would like to keep and grow your new cutting, we recommend that wait until the sucker is about 2-3 inches long or more. This will insure its viability for the next step.
As part of our neopermaculture program, we are teaching our students to make use of the things that
are in abundance around them. We have an abundance of little plastic bottles left over from soft drinks and after a thorough cleaning, they become the perfect container for cloning plants.
The next step is to take the cutting and place it in water. You only want the stem of the plant to come into contact with the water. Make sure that the larger leaves are out of the water and can get some sun.
Change the water often and given a week or so new roots will form. When they do, it is ideal that you wait for them to reach about two inches in length then transplant your new plant to some rich, well draining soil. Well tended with 6-8 hours of sunlight, you will have a brand new plant that is completely identical to the plant it was taken from.
This was a good project for our students and we recommend that you try it with your kids. It is
exciting to watch them watch it grow!
The Sun and Rain Farm and The Life Cooperative are dedicated to using the farm and gardening to teaching kids about the world around them, providing seeds to schools and organizations everywhere, and using the plants we grow to help those in need. If you would like to make a donation to The Sun and Rain Farm, just go here:
If you would like to reach out to us please follow us on instagram here...
or
twitter here...
or
Facebook here...
Feel free to send us an email at thelifecooperative@gmail.com
Tomatoes are easy to clone. In most varieties tomato plants develop what growers call "suckers". Tomato plants grow from the top, spreading up and out like a volcano. The older leaves at the bottom form branches and in the elbow of those branches as it extends from the main stem or trunk, suckers form.
Left alone, they will form another branch that will essentially become another plant. There are conflicting ideas on whether they should be removed at all. Plants get their energy from the sun and the more methods of getting that energy, the better so some people say leave them. Some people think they should be removed because with the energy that they draw in, those suckers also use. Many feel that aggressive pruning puts more of the plant's energy into forming fruit. Depending on your goals, do what you like.
If you would like to keep and grow your new cutting, we recommend that wait until the sucker is about 2-3 inches long or more. This will insure its viability for the next step.As part of our neopermaculture program, we are teaching our students to make use of the things that
are in abundance around them. We have an abundance of little plastic bottles left over from soft drinks and after a thorough cleaning, they become the perfect container for cloning plants.
The next step is to take the cutting and place it in water. You only want the stem of the plant to come into contact with the water. Make sure that the larger leaves are out of the water and can get some sun.
Change the water often and given a week or so new roots will form. When they do, it is ideal that you wait for them to reach about two inches in length then transplant your new plant to some rich, well draining soil. Well tended with 6-8 hours of sunlight, you will have a brand new plant that is completely identical to the plant it was taken from.This was a good project for our students and we recommend that you try it with your kids. It is
exciting to watch them watch it grow!
The Sun and Rain Farm and The Life Cooperative are dedicated to using the farm and gardening to teaching kids about the world around them, providing seeds to schools and organizations everywhere, and using the plants we grow to help those in need. If you would like to make a donation to The Sun and Rain Farm, just go here:
If you would like to reach out to us please follow us on instagram here...
or
twitter here...
or
Facebook here...Feel free to send us an email at thelifecooperative@gmail.com
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