Starting tomatoes from a tomato slice

I just have to do this again! Last year I was Growing Cherry Tomatoes from Tomato Slices (follow the link to see that experiment from a slice to over 100 Cherry Tomatoes). This year, I have decided to grow a regular sized Tomato Plant from a Tomato Slice. (Not that I actually need any more tomato plants.. but i just have the urge to grow food from Kitchen Scraps..)

This is how I do:

1. Take a Tomato, make sure that it is nice and red and mature.

2. Slice it in 1,5 cm thick slices.

3. Put some soil in a pot, bucket or plant starter. I use my Homemade Self Watering Seed Starters. Place the Tomato Slice on the soil.

4. Cover with about 1 cm of soil.

5. Put some plastic over the pot to create a good climate for the seeds to sprout.

When the seeds have started to sprout you have two options:
– If you want to have one or two strong plants: Cut all the sprouts of except of one or two
-. If you want several plants: Carefully separate the sprouts in different pots

I will keep you posted here. To have more guidance through all the steps, see my post from last year: Growing Cherry Tomatoes from Tomato Slices

Update, 4th of March

Update, update!

The Tomato Slice planted one week ago has been working hard. Look how fast it’s sprouting.

Update, 8th of March

There is now several seeds sprouting from the Tomato Slice. I don’t want to end up with 31 plants like I did last year, so I will have to cut some of the sprouts of this year. Amazing how much power there is in one Tomato Slice!

Update, 18th of March

It’s now about 3 weeks since I planted the Tomato Slice, and it’s time to repot the three small Tomato Plants that has been sprouting. I’m sure that there would be more plants coming of this slice if i left it alone for a few more days, but I don’t want to end up with 31 Tomato Plants like i did last year.

This is how the small Plants looked before replanting today.

This is how they looked when I tipped them out of the seed starter:

I did separate them very carefully and planted them in separate pots.

I’m now expecting them to grow like any other Tomato Plant.

Update, 6th of April

The three Tomato Plants coming from the Tomato Slice are growing fast, and looking good. There are two new plants showing in one of the pots (see the first picture below). I don’t want them to compete with the main plant, so I will cut them of.

Update, 10th of May

It’s now one month since last update on this topic. The three Tomato Plants are coming along fine. They have beautiful leaves and look healthy. They are still in the same Pot as they were one month ago but they need to be transplanted to a larger Pot soon.

Update, 30th of May

Moved one of the three Tomato Plants outdoors to one of my Mini Greenhouses today. I transplanted it to a bucket with holes in the bottom, since this Greenhouse has a Self Watering water reservoir:

If you want to see what my Mini Greenhouse looks like and how the Self Watering Reservoir was done – follow this link: Mini Greenhouse with Self Watering Reservoir.

And also, as you might notice the Tomato Plant is a little bit “thirsty” on the picture. I usually don’t water the Tomato Plants at all for a few days before I plan to transplant them. The reason for this is because the stem gets easier to bend – which makes it easier to bury part of the stem if the Tomato Plant has been growing to tall and leggy. If you have this problem, you can check out this previous topic: How to fix tall, thin and leggy Tomato Plants.

Update, 29th of June

Update! Big and Beautiful Flowers are coming on the Tomato Plants started from Sliced Tomatoes. The Plants are looking good. The stems are solid and leaves are looking good. Excited to see the first Tomatoes within a few weeks.

Update, 6th of August

Update!

I now have both Tomatoes and more Flowers coming on my Tomato Plants that I started from Slices.

It is obviously a quite tall Tomato variety and the Plant has been growing a lot over the last few day’s. I have been out of town and came home to Tomato Plants looking like this:

I hade to remove Suckers, and also decided to cut some of the leaves of. I also topped the Tomato Plant (just cutting the top of). This will allow the Plant to focus on producing Tomatoes and making sure that the Tomatoes that are already on their way will get enough nutrients to grow as much as they need during the rest of the season. The Plant looks a bit sad after this treatment, but It will be better of in the long run and produce more Tomatoes that get enough time and nutrients to ripe.

I then moved the Plants back into my Homemade Mini Greenhouse and into my Pallet Collar Mini Greenhouse that I bought a few years ago.

Homemade Mini Greenhouse
(see post with more pictures and DIY instructions: Homemade Mini Greenhouse)

Pallet Collar Mini Greenhouse
(see post with more pictures here: Pallet Collar Mini Greenhouse)

Update, 4th of October

Nice big Tomatoes are ripening on these Plants right now. Very rewarding!

Update, 15th of October

Picked five good sized Tomatoes from one of these Plants today. Still have 4 more Tomatoes left on this Plants. Decided to pick half of them since i fear that Frost is coming. I will let the green ones ripe in my Kitchen Window. In total I have about 25-30 Tomatoes coming from the three Tomato Slices.