A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall Gardener's Chat Tomatoes growing too fast

I am sitting here with a foot of snow on my garden. It will be gone this weekend but the garden will not thaw out as fast as I wanted and as a result my tomatoes are going to be way too tall. So I was thinking of cuttings and re-rooting. If I had 30 paper milk cartons I would us them but I do not. I was thinking of what I could use that would give me an 8 inch tall 3 inch in diameter container. I had an epiphany while at work and got the idea to use scrap ABS pipe 3 inches in diameter x 8 inches high. I install what is called a sure vent where it is not practical to run a vent for a drainage system and with each one I get a huge elastic band 1-1/2” by a tight fit on the 3 inch pipe. Plastic that I saved from a dumpster on a construction sites that will be the base.

Does anyone have any experience in this area or can anyone think of a draw back doing it this way.

Sorry CM, not much of a veggie gardener here, but I did read about people rooting tomatos very successfully

I know that they root very easily. I should have asked the question - do the tomatoes keep their age or do they go back to a fresh start. If I planted the tomatoes on January 1st and kept cutting them back would they be 5 months old on June 1st. helping us where the summer is not very long.

I have clipped 2 back - one Earliana and one Beefsteak. They are in the tubes and only 10 inches off the base instead of the 19 20 inch they where, and I have about 5 weeks till I can plant out. My grow spots (125 watts each) are up as far as I want them to go.

Can a person use too much peralite?

Hubby made me quit planting mine in january cause they looked like a stick.
However I never cut back on them.. Some say to do it and they get bushier.

But the age part is comical for sure>> Good question..

I plan to dig deeper holes for mine this time..
Mine were attacked by white fly for months and we got disgusted.