Plant those suckers: free tomato plants using the side shoots

I’ve thrown caution to the wind folks… I had this carefully thought out plan to grow tomatoes outdoors in my garden this year. In Scotland… yes you read that correctly…outdoor tomatoes in Scotland. However, I’ve just torn up my plan and gone a bit mad.

I’m currently growing three dwarf tomato plants that grow as little bush varieties and give cherry-sized tomatoes. Latah, Ola Polka and Rotkappchen. I chose them specifically because I thought smaller plants and smaller fruit might mean they won’t take as long to grow fruit and ripen, meaning I should get a decent crop, even in Scotland. But of course, I’ve just stuck a new, indeterminate (meaning very tall growing) plant out there… just for fun.

So let me tell you what’s happened. Our friend Lynsey gave us some very trendy, seeds – Brad’s Atomic Grape. They are a bit of an internet hit just now because they taste amazing and have the coolest colouring. So of course, we had to try growing them. They are doing wonderfully well in the greenhouse and we’re eating loads just now, with everything. They are our new favourite tomato and then…. we saw one of our favourite youtubers talk about how when he prunes the suckers off his tomato plants, he plants them. Just like that, he sticks the sucker into the ground with no prep or rooting hormone or anything. You wait a couple of weeks and you have a whole new plant with roots and everything. So of course… It’s me, you know I couldn’t resist trying it out. I even made a video about how the plant was doing.

So it’s been a couple of weeks since I planted that little guy and he is now doing awesome and has a brilliant root system. And yes you guessed it. I couldn’t resist and did it again. So now I have two random Brad’s Atomic Grape Tomato plants that I had nowhere to put them and no reason to grow. This means of course, I’ve planted them up in pots outside with all the other tomatoes.

I absolutely don’t know if this will work and I don’t expect to get many if any ripe tomatoes from the plants. I suspect it’s too late to be growing new plants but hey ho… fun experiment and a nice unexpected addition to the grow along with Eli fun for those of you trying out your tomato growing with me.