What was the first edible plant I ever grew?  A tomato!  Surprise, surprise!  I was in good company.  Not only did I grow up dining on fresh-from-the-garden tomatoes grown by my father (along with cucumbers and peppers), but my mother canned and froze some of those tomatoes for winter use and made pickles from the cucumbers. 

Is it any wonder that my first foray into growing an edible plant was to try my hand at a tomato?  At the time, I was living in a lovely apartment with wonderful landlords who didn’t mind if I put a large pot beside the back porch where it would get plenty of sunshine.  I chose a grape tomato variety, one that grew fast and made its way up the support I’d provided.  Then a most terrible thing happened.

I returned home from work one afternoon and stopped as I approached the back porch.  There was something odd about the tomato that had been taller than me that morning and covered with tomato blossoms.  A closer look showed that someone had broken off the stem and shoved it back in the pot.  I was heartbroken and furious.  I’d watched that plant grow from seed for months. 

My landlady (who had also become a good friend) told me one of the other tenants had accidently bumped into it and the stem had broken.  She was the one who had shoved the stem into the soil.  She said it was quite likely that the stem would form new roots and the plant would survive the trauma, though many, if not most, of the flowers would probably drop off the plant as it diverted energy to build a new root system.  I’d never heard of such a thing before.  That was my first lesson in plant propagation by cuttings (even if this was bigger than any “cutting” I might ever deal with again).

So, I dutifully watered the poor tomato plant and watched as new growth appeared from the stub of the old plant and flowers withered and fell off the replanted stem.  Weeks passed, new flowers appeared on the stem.  Little tomatoes formed from the flowers.  That first vine-ripened grape tomato tasted glorious.  It was the first of many that year.

Many plants can be propagated from cuttings because they will produce roots from nodes along their stems.  Tomatoes will develop roots all along their stems (called “adventitious roots”), which is why you can plant a starter tomato deep.  Either plant it in a deeper hole so that some of the stem is below the surface or dig a trench and lay the tomato on its side, gently bending the stem so that the top several leaves are above the surface.  A healthy root system makes the plant more stable and allows it to absorb more water and nutrition from the soil.  That leads to a better harvest. 

This year I’ll be planting several tomato plants:  a grape tomato for sure, a nice beefsteak variety for those BLTs, a yellow tomato just because, and probably some other varieties.  I can’t wait to taste that first vine-ripened tomato of the season.

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