i dont usually bother joanelle as they come from seed so easily. is there a reason why you want to do this?

Hi Joanella,

I've only started to grow tomatoes this year, and although I agree with Seaburngirl's answer (they are very easy to grow from seed) you could have used the side shoots from your main tomato plant as cutting, but instead of putting them in compost put them in a bottle of water. I was advised to put the side shoots in a brown bottle, like those brown pill bottles you can get from a pharmacist, and fill with water. However I didn't have a brown bottle to hand, Instead I cut a clear lemonade bottle in half filled it with water and placed the side shoots into this. After about a month or so they had rooted sufficiently enough to pot up. I've just potted them up today into bigger pots ready for next year. The only thing with this way of doing it is it had to be done in August - September, although I don't think this applies if you're lucky enough to have a heated greenhouse.
Hope this helps

i just read of someone taking cuttings and fancied trying it as i had a few decent plants last year,i wondered how & when,but i usually but plants from g.c

thanx ptb i think ill just give it a go anyway nothing to lose ,dont have a heated greenhouse so will try and squeeze them into the outhouse if i can that is thanks for info

You have to bear in mind that over the winter, light levels are very low, hence the seedlings will become long and drawn and will collapse. The aim of tomoato plants are the fruit.....and in order for the fruit to ripen you need heat...and lots of it.....which you won't get until at least May/June/July...unless of course you can afford to keep your greenhouse well heated....would be interested to hear how you get on with your experiment Joanella!!

I would not suggest taking cuttings just buy or grow new plants next year. Much better to start with healthy new plants.

I took cuttings during the summer from my established tomato plants and am now harvesting fruits ,from my cold greehouse,which are useful now that the main crop are finished.. It was an experiment which I am well satisfied with and will repeat in the future.
Thinking more about it ,I expect that later grown seeds would have resulted in the same outcome !

thanx for all your tips i should have done it earlier but still learning, as ever ,however i will take cuttings as i say and try them will let you know how they get on.thanx everyone

most of the information has been given to you but I would just add to what Amblealice said I have grown tomatoes for years and what I always looked for in a plant was the distance betwen the branches longe through out short going to crop well so as she says doing what you say they will bolt a bit making the distance to big for them to be any good, why not grow tomatoes you can be proud of insted of inventing somthing that is a waste of time and has been throne out a million times befor .

thank you cliffo i am so pleased to get good advice from well established growers such as yourself and all the other people on this site and i will take all your comments on board