An alternative to starting loads of tomato seeds?

This year is my first serious attempt at gardening, and I've purchased various packs of tomatoes. I've ended up with such a large number of tomatoes it's getting crazy. Anway, I was wondering if next year instead of starting loads of seeds a good idea would be to grow out a couple of packs of seeds and then choosing the best few seedlings which appear to be strong and vigorous, and throw away the rest, which would theoretically save a lot of space and effort spent watering etc for a while at least. Out of these strong seedlings I would root the suckers in peat pellets to produce as many plants as required, since a cutting takes far less time to reach maturity than a seedling. Would this work?

I've taken a couple of cuttings from a plant about week ago and they've rooted in the last few days and are growing in the greenhouse. This got me wondering whether they'll mature fast enough to give me a harvest in time? When in general is the latest I can actually take cuttings for them to produce fruit in time? Obviously you don't need to start rooting the tomato cuttings as early as you need to germinate tomato seeds, but I'm still unsure of timescales. I live in a village called Matfield in Kent in the South East UK FYI.

 

How many tomato plants do you need?

I grow about 15 Tomato plants - 5-each of 3 varieties. I only sow about 10 seeds of each variety - that way a packet of seed lasts me 2 or 3 years - and I give away a couple. Its rare that I don't get nearly all the seeds germinated.

You can grow plants from Cuttings, taken from the side shoots, but the plants have to be 6-8 weeks old or so before they produce side shoots, and those will take 8 weeks before they start to produce flowers and then fruit.

So if you want an early crop, in a greenhouse, then sow from seed in February - later if you don't have enough windowsills (or heated conservatory / greenhouse) to keep the plants on until the greenhouse is warm enough for them.

If you just want lots of plants, cheaply, then cuttings will do - but you can buy seed in bulk cheaply too from companies like Moles Seeds.

 

"How many tomatoes do you need?"

Often more than is supplied in the packet. This year I'm growing about 60 plants or maybe more.

The advantage of only growing a few plants of a given variety and then taking cuttings when the side shoots are big enough is that I'll have much more space to grow other plants in the greenhouse. I can time it so that they're hardened off and planted out in time for when I need to take the tomato cuttings, making it all a more efficient use of the greenhouse.

I can't see why this wouldn't work. In fact I think it's a pretty good idea.

But that's an F1 seed, meaning the seed saved from your tomatoes will not breed true. I wouldn't use them at all and would rather choose an IBL/open-pollenated strain like an heirloom variety if you want to save seed.

 

Yup, it will definitely work, and it will save you greenhouse space as you say.

The only issue is that the cuttings will be 6 - 8 weeks behind the parent plants.

If that is time enough for your crop then that's fine

You are possibly also opening them up to blight - i.e. if blight strikes you will only have the crop that you managed to harvest before the attack, so the later your crop the more of it is at risk.

60 plants is a lot! You bottling / preserving them perhaps?