Preservation of hybrid variety over winter
 

Some seeds of hybrid varieties are difficult to access for me and also very expensive. Therefore, in September, I picked the suckers from selected plants and planted them. Today I have Nugget F1, Arielle F1, Tuti Fruti F1 and Philovita F1 behind the window. I will refer to these plants as generation number 1. Yesterday I cut off their tops and planted them (they will be generation number 2). I suppose I will clone again from number 2 plants sometime in late January or early February. Plants grown from clones of Generation 3 are then planted in the garden beds. I have no problems with growing outside the window, only occasionally watering the plants.
I also want to use cloning to grow Kumato F2. This year, I have grown eight Kumato plants from seeds selected from the purchased fruit. The fruits on the plants differed somewhat in color, size and shape. Also the taste was not exactly the same. I want to grow more Kumato plants next year and pick the one that I like best and keep this cloning for the future.
Vladimír

They look very healthy. That is the only thing I would worry about -- rooting plants with disease.

That's a very good idea. I should have done that with Sungold.

I did it with the last plant still alive in the garden before frost hit.
Since the clones are precise copies they get a generic label.

For good luck I use the aspirin spray on the clones whenever I walk by.
325mg per 1 liter of water in a spray bottle.
It darkens up the leaves and makes them thicker.

Nice to see your success with this! :) I have tried cloning late in the season but failed. The plants would not root for me at this time of year. Our days are too short, they weren't fooled by the extra lights indoors. I had the same problem with rosemary and others.

You're right. Diseases can really be transmitted. That's why I also removed suckers while the plants were in full growth and looked healthy. I don't want to produce a lot of plants, but I need only one or two plants of each variety. Even if a plant is sick, I can easily rip it off, I grow tomatoes mainly for fun.
Vladimír

Another hazard is bringing bugs into the house.
Mine are loaded with aphids.
Cloning failure this time of year has a lot to do with soil temp, even indoors.
The soil has to be super warm or the cuttings just rot.

So far my cloning looks successful. I have five clones already rooted to two under a glass (I put them there two days ago). One clone died. In the back row are four mother plants (G1-generation 1), seven cloned in front (2 + 2 Tuti Fruti F1, 1 Philovita F1, 2 Nugget F1).
Vladimír

Vladimir, will you prune them to keep them small while growing indoors? I would like to see the experiment. :) Indoor plants in winter always got too long and leggy for me, but pruning is an art, I am no master of it.

When they get too big you can cut and clone again.

On the right picture is the mother plants on which are marked on future clones. Clone number one is already rooted and is shown on the left. It will probably follow sucker number three. As soon as I have the required number of clones (two or three), I will throw away the mother plant.
Vladimír

For those with limited space indoors you can play around with the K ratings
of the grow lights and the on times.This keeps the plants alive but growing
at a slower rate than you would do for spring starts.
Like 6500K and 12 hours on/off.

I've thought about cloning, but so far, that's as far as I've gotten. Can determinate plants that are cloned produce fruit? Is any particular part of the plant required? (From what I've read about plant cloning in general, I wouldn't think so.) -GG

I clone determinate plants to extend their productive growing season.
I just top them and use that as cloning materiel.
If the tops have blossoms you will eat those 1st then fruit from the
donor plants later on when they recover from being decapitated.
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