Flower truss re-rooting

[NarnianGarden]

Has anyone succesfully rooted a flower truss and got ripe fruits? My tallest tomato snapped some of its branches .. and a flower truss was among them. No foliage, but a tall stem.
I stuck it in water, hoping that it can find energy to grow some roots.

Maybe not likely, but tomatoes are known to be innovative and courageous.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by NarnianGarden

Has anyone succesfully rooted a flower truss and got ripe fruits? My tallest tomato snapped some of its branches .. and a flower truss was among them. No foliage, but a tall stem.
I stuck it in water, hoping that it can find energy to grow some roots.

Maybe not likely, but tomatoes are known to be innovative and courageous.

Yes I have but only if I had one plant since seeds sent to me were pretty much DOA and I only got one seed to germinate.

But I did something different than you did.

Anything rooted in water then has to adapt to a solid matrix to grow well,so I put it in a plastic cup filled with a good seed starting mix, and then put an upside down plasticn cup over it,which results in a mini greenhouse.Kept it in the shade until I saw new grow then when it got to be maybe 3-4 inches tall,just planted it in the soil where it was planted initially.

And eventually I did get blossoms and fruits, and saved seeds from those ripe fruits,which is what I was after in the first place.

Did the above only once, much easier to root side branches that had broken off from the main stem.

Carolyn

[NarnianGarden]

Yes, I know there are different methods to re-root a branch. Personally I never had success when I tried to directly plant in the soil. All I got was a withered dried up branch.
Since I do not want these flowers to wither (or the fruits to drop) I rather try the water method.

There ar still other flower trusses on that plant which hopefully grow normally.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by NarnianGarden

Yes, I know there are different methods to re-root a branch. Personally I never had success when I tried to directly plant in the soil. All I got was a withered dried up branch.
Since I do not want these flowers to wither (or the fruits to drop) I rather try the water method.

There ar still other flower trusses on that plant which hopefully grow normally.

I didn't replant directly in the soil, as I explained above. I put in in a good seed starting mix, actually I prefer Farfard, kept it in the shade,etc. as I wrote above.

So you are expecting the flowers to form fruits that might drop , as you wrote above?

Not me.Once I got a plant going I'd remove any petals or buds since energy would then go to the growth of the plant rather than energy go to ripening fruits.

Carolyn

[NarnianGarden]

Yes Carolyn, my question was whether anyone has succesfully re-planted a fruit truss (and subsequently got fruits from it)

A mission impossible quite likely. But I did not want that flower truss to go to waste. Tomatoes are known for their survival skills, so...
At least I have tried. (I have re-rooted and re-planted flowering branches before, without losing the fruits, but they all had foliage.)

[Salsacharley]

I would say that you will have to keep it in the dark for several days to enable some roots to form before exposing it to light. Perhaps some rooting compound would help.

[bower]

I have gotten small fruit from trusses just in water. May depend on the variety how pleased they are to do it. Iirc Lotos was very wierd, produced and grew several fruit instead of growing a single root in the water! Others just dropped blossoms and spent more on rooting. This was in the height of summer with lots of sunshine and heat, and they were out in the yard. Some set a fruit or two and also made roots, then I put them into pots with soil and let them carry on.



Later in the season, I once had a crossed tomato that had set but didn't grow, and then the stem got mouldy further down below it. So I cut about a foot of the part of stem that was good, stuck the thing in a pickle jar of water indoors on a windowsill, and it grew the fruit and ripened it, I got five seeds. I did grow them a couple of years later, and they were all viable seeds.
At the end of season I've tried to root cuttings with or without flowers and had no success at all.

[Nan_PA_6b]

Narnian, I'm glad you're doing the experiment! Let us know how it goes.


Nan