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I am devastated. One of my santa plum tomatoes has snapped half way up from windy weather (above the first truss) - I found it shortly after it had happened and have used a sticking plaster to stick it together again. Will this work?????
Or have I lost most of the fruit?

Hi westsussexlottie,

i have had the same, and from my best looking bush with the most fruit... >:(  I have removed the stem and hung it upside down in my larder.  I have been told that the toms should still ripen, but you obviously will have lost the less mature fruits.

Darren.

This was still in flower....
Any ideas?

I forgot to take a side shoot off (i think) so i had two stems on my plant, so i tore it off and put it in a vase on my front windowsill. I regularly change the water and feed with baby bio and tomato food, its going great, started rooting and i've got tomatoes coming, how fantastic is that, if it all goes well with both the mother and child, i might do it again next year!!!

It depends how bad the break was. If it was just a fold with splitting, but some strands of stem fibre are unbroken, tie firmly to a bamboo above and below the break to keep it straight and lined up, then bind the outside of the break with something porous to stop it drying out.
If it's a really bad break, then it would probably be worth trying to re-root as Littlegem says - you've nothing to lose. Side shoots from tomatoes do root easily, but I've never tried a whole stem.

Sticking plaster has worked for me.  But then again so has masking tape.

The broken part will rapidly root if placed in moist compost and kept in a moist atmosphere - then you'll have 2 plants for the price of one

Phil

You'll also find that a side shoot left on the plant will grow rapidly enough that your original plant will still produce loads more tomatoes.

I read about the rooting up of side shoots on this board, so tried it about a week ago. Just stuck one straight into a 3" pot of compost... roots already showing at the bottom of the pot.

Given that all the hairs on the stem have the potential to become roots, it may well be worth trying to root the whole plant... there's nothing to lose.

I'm also leaving a single lower side shoot on some of my tomato plants, just to see what happens... and eventually compare the end results with the single stemmed ones. So far, it's looking good...

I agree with everyone on the re-rooting.  Its really, really easy.  I did this when I had given all my spare tom plants away, and a neighbour asked for one a bit too late.  Luckily one of my plants had developed a large side-shoot when I wasn't looking (sneaky!).  Cut it off, stuck it in a jar of water.  Few days later.... lovely healthy root system, ready to be potted up.  And one happy neighbour!

I will bung mine in some water tonight, and see what happens then.....  :)

Thanks,

Darren.

I have been known to use sellotape to 'repair' snapped tom stems, seem to do it every year...spin around in the greenhouse, catch a plant, snnnap!  Never had a problem yet!  ;D

I have repaired it with a plaster.... seems to have worked so far - if it fails I will plant the stem!