On Jul 8, 2:35*pm, "Janet Bostwick" > wrote:
> "Paul M. Cook" > wrote in ...
>
>
>
> > "Arri London" > wrote in message
> ...
>
> >> "Paul M. Cook" wrote:
>
> >>> While cleaning out my tomato pots and trimming my plants I noticed my
> >>> yellow
> >>> pear had 2 main branches of 4 that had broken spots. *It looked like the
> >>> branch had been twisted like a dish rag aka wrung out. *The leaves were
> >>> still alive but the breaks did not look good. It looked like the plant
> >>> had
> >>> tried to grow downward against the tomato stakes trying to make them
> >>> grow
> >>> upwards. *The breaks were brownish looking and seemed really week. *I
> >>> went
> >>> ahead and cut them off losing 1/3 of my plant in the process and most of
> >>> my
> >>> young tomatoes.
>
> >>> Did I over react? *I was thinking those limbs would never be viable and
> >>> a
> >>> drain on the plant in the end. *Plus I was worried about bug
> >>> infiltration.
> >>> Will it recover? *Sure doesn't look good at the moment.
>
> >>> Paul
>
> >> Might have overreacted a bit. When dealing with broken stems of plants,
> >> we normally try straightening them out gently and then taping over the
> >> weak part to support it. It often (but not always) is enough for that
> >> stem to recover and grow normally.
>
> > Yeah, I thought about that. *Though about making a splint for it. *The
> > vascular system was damaged but the stalk was not dead. *I'll do that next
> > time. *I'm hoping it is early enough in the season that it won't matter.
> > Already the emplt space is filling in with leaves from the other stalks
> > but they don;t look like they'll be growing any buds soon.
>
> > Paul
>
> If it is early enough in the season to make it worthwhile, you can cut a new
> edge on the broken piece, put it in water and in about a week it will have
> new roots. *In my experience, the old tops on new roots are fairly robust
> growers once established.

Or cut the edge, dip it in Rootone and stick it into the soil. Keep
the soil damp around it for a week or two and it will root. Then it
will grow another shoot from that rooting.

> Janet

--Bryan