TOMATOES FROM CUTTINGS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XII, Issue II, 13 January 1894, Page 46

TOMATOES FROM CUTTINGS.

I AM very much in favour of propagating tomatoes by cuttings. If a gardener has a good variety, and is not certain that it will come peifectly true from seed, the best plan is to keep up the stock by cuttings. The earliest fruits in spring are readily secured from plants rooted as cuttings in the autumn, and grown during the winter as store plants. In autumn tomatoes that are about to cease bearing produce numerous shoots, and if these are taken off and inserted at the rate of from four to six in a 4-inch or 5 inch pot, they will turn out well during the leafy spring months. The pots should be plunged in a little bottom heat until the cuttings aie rooted, then harden them off a little, and keep them afterwards with pelargoniums, or plants of this sort. They winter better in a cool place, away from frost, than in much heat; but they may be potted singly, and started into growth very early in spring, and it is then the cuttings have the advantage over seedlings. The latter are always inclined to make very long stems, but cuttings are always dwaif, and I have proved them over and over again to b earlier and produce more fruit than seedlings.