Frugal Friday Tip

Getting more tomato plants for FREE!!

Use tomato suckers to make new plants! Tomato vines are one of nature's great survivers. If allowed to run over the ground, they will develop roots and form entirely new plants. This ensures that if the mail vine is broken or eaten, the plants continues through it's cycle to produce lots of tomato seeds which will grow next year. It's easy to use this survival mechanism to produce lots of free tomato plants to share and to keep. If you have a heated greenhouse, or can bring some plants indoors, you can also use this process to create free tomato plants to start next years garden.



Suckers are the new branches that grow at the joint of each leaf on a healthy tomato stem. Allow the stem to grow about 8 inches long, then gently cut the stem off just above the joint where it is starting. If the suckers have started growing tomatoes, cut the sucker about 8 inches from the end, allow the tomatoes on the vine to finish growing.

Fill a planter with good potting soil. Pick a lightweight potting soil, not soil from your garden. You can choose a brand with fertilizer, or you can go with an organic variety. Fertilizer is not necessary to root tomato suckers.

Gently remove any branches on the lower half of the sucker.

Plant the tomato suckers into the soil. You do not need to use rotting hormone to root tomatoes. About half of the sucker should be in the potting soil, while the upper half should be above the soil line. You can place several tomatoes in the same planter.

Water the planter thoroughly.

Place the planter to a spot with full shade. Water as needed to keep the soil from getting dry while the suckers are rooting. The plants will wilt for the first two days, but should spring back.

In about two weeks, start checking the plants to see if roots are developing. In about three weeks, roots should have developed enough to move each plant to an individual planter. When they are grown another week or so, place the plant in it's permanent location.

Plant the new tomato in good soil, and water thoroughly. Water as needed while the tomato plant is becoming established in its new location. Provide structure for the new plant to grow, then enjoy the fruit of your new plants!


I've done this in the past & had great results. Turned into a full grown tomato plant! I did this again this week to expand my tomato plants with 3 new ones since we lost a few plants after buying & planting them.