How to Propagate Tomatoes

Written & researched by Elena Marsh Gardening & Landscaping Editor

Updated June 2026

To propagate tomatoes, take a 4 to 6 inch cutting or sucker from a healthy plant, strip the lower leaves, and place the bare stem in water or moist soil — it will grow roots in 1 to 2 weeks and become a full plant identical to the parent. Tomato stems are lined with latent root cells (the small bumps along the stem), so any piece of stem readily roots. This clones your best plants for free, produces a fruiting plant faster than seed, and turns the suckers you pinch off into a whole new crop.

Propagation is one of the most useful and underused tomato skills. It costs nothing, multiplies a favorite variety, and gives you fresh plants for a fall crop or to overwinter indoors. Here is exactly how to do it.

Why tomatoes clone so easily

Look closely at a tomato stem and you will see small bumps, especially near the base — these are adventitious root primordia, dormant root cells waiting for the right conditions. When a section of stem is placed in water or moist soil, those cells activate and push out roots within days. This is the same reason you plant tomato seedlings deep: the buried stem grows extra roots. Because a cutting is a clone, it is genetically identical to the parent, so you get exactly the same variety, flavor and disease resistance — unlike saved seed from hybrids, which does not come true.

What to take: cuttings and suckers

You have two sources, and both work equally well.

• Suckers: the shoots that grow in the 45-degree crotch between the main stem and a leaf branch. On indeterminate tomatoes these are often pinched off to direct energy; rather than composting them, root them. A sucker 4 to 6 inches long is ideal.
• Stem-tip cuttings: the top 4 to 6 inches of a healthy side shoot or growing tip, cut just below a leaf node.

Always take from a healthy, disease-free plant — propagation clones any disease the parent carries. Avoid plants showing wilt, spotting or curling leaves; see why are my tomato leaves curling to rule out problems first.

Method 1: rooting in water

The simplest method, and you can watch the roots form.

1. Cut a 4 to 6 inch sucker or stem tip with clean scissors, cutting just below a node.
2. Strip the lower leaves, leaving only the top two or three, so no foliage sits in the water.
3. Place the bare stem in a jar of room-temperature water, submerging the lower 2 to 3 inches. Use a clear jar so you can monitor roots.
4. Set it in bright, indirect light at around 70°F. Avoid direct sun, which overheats the water.
5. Change the water every 2 to 3 days to keep it fresh and oxygenated.
6. Pot up when roots reach 1 to 2 inches, usually in 1 to 2 weeks, into moist potting mix.

Water roots are fragile, so pot them gently and keep the newly potted cutting well watered and shaded for a few days while it adjusts.

Method 2: rooting in soil

This produces sturdier roots already adapted to soil and skips the transplant adjustment.

1. Take the cutting and strip lower leaves as above.
2. Dip the cut end in rooting hormone (optional — tomatoes root without it, but it can speed things up).
3. Insert the stem 2 to 3 inches deep into moist potting mix or a seed-starting mix in a small pot.
4. Keep the mix consistently moist, not soggy, and place in bright, indirect light at around 70°F.
5. Cover loosely with a clear bag or dome the first few days to hold humidity, venting daily to prevent rot.
6. Test for rooting after 10 to 14 days with a gentle tug; resistance means roots have formed.

A quality seed-starting mix gives clean, fine-textured rooting; the ranked field is in best seed starting mix, chosen by the method in how we rank.

Water vs soil: which to choose

When to propagate for the best result

Timing decides whether your new plants have time to fruit. The prime window is late spring through midsummer, when plants are vigorous and producing suckers and enough season remains for the clones to mature. Because a rooted cutting is already a mature-tissue plant, it often flowers and fruits sooner than a seed-grown plant of the same age.

• Midsummer propagation gives a fresh fall crop from your best plants as the originals decline — a reliable way to extend the season in zones 7 and warmer.
• Late-summer cuttings can be overwintered indoors under grow lights to keep a favorite variety alive or to get a jump on next spring. See do you need grow lights to start seeds.

Growing on the new plants

Once rooted and potted, treat cuttings like any young tomato: harden them off before moving outdoors (see how to harden off seedlings), plant deep to encourage more roots, and feed and water as usual — details in how to care for tomatoes and how often to water tomatoes. Because clones share the parent's root system vigor, they establish quickly and catch up fast.

Cloning vs saving seed: which to choose

Propagation and seed-saving both multiply your tomatoes, but they give different results, and the choice matters most with hybrids. A cutting is a clone — genetically identical to the parent, so it produces exactly the same fruit, flavor and disease resistance. Saved seed from an open-pollinated or heirloom variety also comes true, but seed saved from an F1 hybrid does not: the next generation scatters into a mix of the hybrid's parent traits, often disappointingly.

This is why cloning is the reliable way to keep a favorite hybrid going year after year: take a cutting, overwinter it, and you never lose the variety even though its seed would not reproduce it.

Troubleshooting cuttings

For the full growing cycle from planting to harvest, see how to care for tomatoes and when to plant tomatoes. Everything else is at the seeds and vegetable growing hub.