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Growing Tomatoes

Ripe Tomatoes With Seeds Sprouting Inside

13 years ago

The beautiful red, ripe tomato I have (store bought) has seeds sprouting inside of it. Some are tiny green stems uncurling and one has what looks like a micro leaf at the end. I have concerns about eating this tomato due to the fact that they are of the nightshade family and you're not suppose to eat anything but the fruit. Am I wrong? I do plan to salvage as many of the unsprouted seeds as possible just to see what would come up this next growing season. So, would you eat the tomato or not?

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Comments (5)

carolyn137
13 years ago
There's no problem eating the fruits at all and not even any problem eating those germinated seeds if you wanted to. The several alkaloids are present only in the foliage and in very small unripe fruits, but as the fruits mature the alkaloids also disappear. And it isn't at all uncommon to see seeds sprouted in store bought tomatoes which have been shipped and stored at low temps for long periods of time. Many have shown pictures here of just that.

One can also see germinated seeds from time to time in ripe red/gold bicolor fruits I think mainly b'c the flesh of those is so soft.

Carolyn
tom8olvr
13 years ago
This totally freaks me out. I can lug manure, squish a tobacco hornworm, save a spider - but sprouting seeds in a tomato totally freaks me out.
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Before I left work yesterday, several of my co-workers whom I told about the tomato asked me to rewrite my will - which I didn't, of course, although I will next year or so, and they still won't be in it. Caterpillars in food creep me out - I used to scream and drop the food if I would find one, although caterpillars in their normal homes do not bother me. I would hate shucking fresh corn from the field, for fear of finding a caterpillar. The sprouts in the tomato looked like little worms, and that was a bit creepy, but since I normally eat alfalfa sprouts, I wasn't that bothered by it. Lars
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rennessaw_gmail_com
12 years ago
We have a tomato doing this, never seen it before. I am amazed it isn't even squishy, it's almost 5 weeks old.
aloha10
12 years ago
I fermented seeds from a beautiful Virginia Sweet tomato and found after four days, that about half of the seeds had little tails indicating germination. Should I bother saving these for 2012 planting or are they a lost cause?
victor
dickiefickle
12 years ago
the seeds that didnt sprout will be ok to save

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