Help! My tomatoe plant broke.

Question

The main vine on my tomato plant broke at the stem. It is very tall, 5', and broke about 2 feet from the bottom. My best tomatoes were on that vine, will they die? Can I save the tomatoes and make them grow? Is there any way to save the plant? I tried putting rooting compound on the end that broke off and sticking it in the soil, with the tomatoes attached, but I don't think that'll work. Will the broken end regrow itself if still on the root? I'm pretty sad about it. Can I take the broken vines and regrow roots in water? Thanks!

Answer 1

I don't think the broken piece will grow roots so best discard that. If you let any laterals on the unbroken stem grow you could get some tomatoes on them but they would likely be small. Better to go and buy another plant if they are still available in your nearest nursey.

Answer 2

1) Sometimes you can get a tomato vine to grow roots by placing the broken end into a bucket of water (don't let it go dry!!!) - even better if a bit of rooting compound is dissolved in the water.

2) If it broke but not all the way off, I have had luck once in the past by using a good tape to wrap the snapped area to keep the stem intact.  The plant grew thick in the snapped area and thrived - I got almost as many tomatoes from that plant as from my others.  HOWEVER, if you've already removed the stem from the root section, this procedure has no hope of working.

3) Any tomato fruit that is anywhere near its completed size will ripen either on or off the vine and will be good to eat, but not if they are too small to mature as is.  Each year, near the end of the season (I try to guess when the first freeze will be) I pick all my green tomatoes, bring them inside and wrap them with newspaper - they will slowly ripen and be very good to eat - OR - get a recipe for green tomato ''chow chow'' (a type of relish great on beans and hotdogs) or make fried green tomatoes!

Answer 3

Youm must take the tomatoes off..no plant will root while fruiting..You can take the green tomatoes and put in a paper bag with a banana and this will ripen the green tomatoes up,..the main stem will not root and succesfully fruit out but you can take any suckers off the plant and cut at an angle below a leaf node..pull all the leaves off the sucker except the top couple of sets..then cut these leaves in half so the weight of them don't make them droop while rooting..once they root in a couple of weeeks then transplant them..i will show you what a sucker looks like..it is the growth of a new stalk coming out in between a main stalk and a leaf..it will be in the middle..I grow tomatoes and will also show you mine that are trimmed way back..and I take the suckers off and root them as I just suggested..most of the tomatoe plants I show you are grown from suckers..i start out with 6 tomatoe plants at the biggining of every season..root the suckers and end up with 50 or so planted and another 100 or so I sell once rooted and grown to about 2 feet in heigth..here is some info..look under "rooting cuttings here..now i will find you pictures on how to idetify suckers..you can make 10 or 12 more plants from this broken stem if it is 3 feet broken off...

http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/recipes/car...

In this picture you can see a sucker just begining to grow..Your broken plant probably has some on it that are 6 or 7 inches long..You can plant these cut as i said dip in root harmone and plant..they willg row full size plants..see hwo this sucker is growing in the middle of the main stalk and another branch..suckers are always in the middle.any suckers you root..if they have any signs of small buds forming on them..pull the buds off..

http://gardening.about.com/od/totallytom...

Here is an actual video that will show you them pulling the suckers off and where they are located....As I said yours are probably 6 r 7 inches long and perfect for transplanting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eak7yj0tE...

Answer 4

Take all the tomatoes off the broken piece. Cut the bottom (applying the rooting hormone wouldn’t hurt) and plant it at least six or eight inches deep and water it two to three times a day – it should root and start to re-grow giving you more tomatoes. Stake the broken piece if it needs support until it is established.

The original plant which is still in its original spot will be fine.