2 Sections of Tomato Plan

10 years ago

Hi All,

When I bought my Rutgers tomato plant, I was fairly certain I bought one, however, I don't know if you can see it from the picture, it looks as if it has two sections. One section is growing tall and is growing tomatoes with large soft green leaves. the other section has not grown tall at all and the leaves are harsh and dark green. There is nothing growing on the second section either. It has not produced any tomatoes nor flowers. Is this second section dead? Should I cut it out and away from the healthy section? I really don't want the whole tomato plant to get sick or die from this second section but I don't want to cut it away and risk putting the healthy section into shock.

In the picture, the producing and growing section is behind the stunted section.

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks
Jessica

Comments (4)

digdirt2
10 years ago
Jessica - just in case you didn't know, there is a Tomato growing forum here. It's direct linked from this forums front page.

Assuming you did not buy one of the grafted plants then without actually seeing the leaves on the dwarf half (for want of a better label) I'm guessing there were 2 different plants in the pot when you bought it. It is more common than is ideal and the small one may not have been obvious.

From the leaf shape and the internode length it isn't a Rutgers but appears to be one of the so-called "tree-type" tomato plants. There are several varieties, all dwarfs. It doesn't appear to have the Rugose leaves (pleated, wrinkled, and thicker) that some of them have but there still is no way to know for sure what it is.

However bottom line, since they are in containers and 2 plants in a container that size won't fly and since it is causing stress for the far more productive plant so I'd cut it off at the soil line. It may try to re-sprout a time or 2 so just keep it cut off.

Dave
nugrdnnut
10 years ago
Did you trim your tomato plant before transplanting it (deep)? The reason I ask is that after I trimmed my tomato plant I put the trimmings in the whole and 1 of the trimmings wasn't buried enough and it is growing.

This could explain your situation.
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nugrdnnut
10 years ago
sorry about the duplicate posting.

This post was edited by nugrdnnut on Sun, Jul 14, 13 at 10:13
Athenian
10 years ago
I'd cut it off as close to the bottom as possible, pull off the bottom leaves then try rooting it in another pot just to see what kind of tomatoes it might produce.