tomato and chili cloning for hydro / aeroponics!

Discussion in 'Fruit and Vegetable Gardening' started by coragriculture, Dec 25, 2009.

  1. coragriculture

    coragriculture Member

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    Hey, first time posting on this site and hoping to hear back good things. I'm an urban farmer up in Rochester, NY working with hydroponics and aeroponics. I have worked with non autoflower exotics most of my time but am considering moving into niche tomatoes and chili varieties. Questions though...

    1) Are all tomatoes / chilis autoflower, or time sensitive to 12/12 etc.?

    2) If tomatoes are not pollinated, will they flower or do they need some form of interaction, even if its self pollination? Do chili's work the same way as well? Are there special considerations?

    3) For cloning purposes, when having a mother plant that is an autovariety, do you wait till after flowering to cut off a branch for cloning so the new limb is reset in terms for flowering, or do all clones reset when they put forth roots?


    Hope to get some answers!!!!!!!! :)


    -Alex
     
  2. Vancouver Island

    Vancouver Island Active Member

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    3) For cloning purposes, when having a mother plant that is an autovariety, do you wait till after flowering to cut off a branch for cloning so the new limb is reset in terms for flowering, or do all clones reset when they put forth roots?

    This is an interesting question. I really don't know the answer. However, I found a reference that indicates that a clone from a 6 week old plant has an age of that plant. Other shrubs and trees that are cloned will also have an advanced age. The obvious downside of this is that continuous cloning will result in old plants at some point and time that will not be as viable long term as a newly planted seeds.

    I had an indeterminate tomato plant this year with remarkable qualities . It produced fruit ahead of the other plants (out of the same package of hybrid tomatoes) and also seemed to be more productive over an extended period of time. It also seemed to be more resistant to the effects of cold weather. The plant was producing new little tomatoes into October in an outdoor covered area. And yes, we had light frosts prior to this. I took cuttings of this plant and have them rooting under my new T5 lights. Four have rooted but others were lost.

    It will be interesting to see if they will be any earlier than plants that will be seeded in March. They are now well rooted. One cloned plant looks like it may be starting a flower bud. This would be remarkable if it does. The lights are on 12hrs / day and the plant is about 4" high. The mother plant was well over 5' tall when the cuttings were taken. There were flowers on the cuttings I took, but they shrivelled after the first week in the rooting soil. 12 hr lighting may be forcing these plants to flower.

    By the way, what does "autovariety" mean?
     

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