Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
doreen_2

my tomato plant broke in half...please help me!

Doreen_2
18 years ago

The wind blew my tomato plant over and I discovered that my plant was leaning because the stem is half broke. Not completely, though. What do I do? Should I toss it and start a new one or should I tear it off and replant the broken piece in another pot? For the time being,I secured it to a stake so it can stand straight up. Is this okay? Please help! This is a determinate husky red tomato plant.It had already started to bear fruit and yellow flowers, and I'd hate for it to be a total loss.

Comments (7)

  • jenny_in_se_pa
    18 years ago

    You can do a number of things. If it isn't completely severed, you can actually tape it up (I like to use teflon tape but you can try something else like cloth strips, etc - maybe some foil to keep it firm and dry, etc) and in most cases, the break will heal on its own if the branch is supported and splinted somehow.

    Alternately, you could try to root the top part, but since this is a bearing determinant, that might be tricky as it is already fruiting and determinants generally do that one big fruiting and then that's it (and to try to grow roots and have fruit might be difficult for it).

    I would try the taping/splinting. I have done it a many a time for my big beefsteak plants over the years - particularly when they have alot of fruit on them.

  • mdaisy
    18 years ago

    My tomato plant broke and is full of tomatoes. Can I leave the fruit on the plant to ripen or should I remove the fruit and try to ripen them in the sun? Please help, I hate to have all my work thrown away.

  • username_5
    18 years ago

    how green are the maters on the broken stem?

    You can take the stem and put it in very moist potting soil and see if the plant continues to ripen the maters. Generally a damaged plant will expend every last ounce of it's available energy trying to ripen the existing fruit. In fact one 'trick' to get green fruit to ripen at the end of the season is to damage the plant to get it to hurry up. This damage is generally using a shovel to hack off part of it's root system, but damage is damage ;-)

    Let the plant ripen them as far as possible and then let them finish ripening on their own. I wouldn't suggest leaving the maters outside in the sun after they are removed from the plant though. Bring them inside and place in a paper bag with a sliced up apple to ripen them. Apples produce ethylene gas naturally. Ethylene is what commercial growers use to ripen tomatos harvested green for shipping.

  • garden_velociraptor
    17 years ago

    The branch is i mean.

  • garden_velociraptor
    17 years ago

    I mean to say that I was trying to pic a tomato,and its branch had almost got stripped off. The thick skin is hanging off though.

  • matermann
    14 years ago

    my topsy turvy fell and the main stems broke and some of the smaller ones as well i removed the smaller ones hoping they would grow back ???? and the bigger ones i have propped up with a piece of string does anyone know if my plant will live and will ever be able to withstand holding itself up agian or am i wasting my time i really hope not i have some=e juicy looking tomatoes coming in any advice please let me kmow thnks