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Growing Tomatoes

Seed saving from squirrel-munched tomatoes?

15 years ago

Maybe this is obvious, or has been discussed before, but...

Books that talk about seed saving say, "take your best, ripest tomato and... squeeze all the seeds into a jar". I'm thinking, that's the tomato I want to EAT! But what about if your best, ripest tomato one morning has a bite taken out of it by an evil squirrel (or other critter)? Isn't that a great candidate for seed saving? Or should I not save seed that has squirrel saliva in it? (eeww)

I want to save seeds for next year but I'm afraid my yield will be so low that I won't want to sacrifice any "good ones".

Comments (8)

digdirt2
15 years ago
Assuming the tomato was ripe before the squirrel desecrated it ;) saving its seeds is fine. Just shows he had good taste and skipped over the hybrid tomatoes for a nice open-pollinated one. Hopefully he left you enough seeds. :^)

Dave
trudi_d
15 years ago
Most squirrels are healthy but some do carry rabies. I suspect there would be not transmission of the disease by contact with the tomato if the squirrel was rabid; but just to assuage your own concerns it might be best to toss that one one the compost heap. If it's truly rare and you feel a dire need to save its seeds I would do a sani-scrub. I'll paste in the link for the information...

Here is a link that might be useful: Sani-Scrub Tomato Saving Method.
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Your best bet is to pick the fruit green before a frost and then ripen them in the house before collecting the seed for processing. If they've started to turn paler green at the blossom end, they should ripen successfully in the house in a single layer on the counter. The riper they are, the better in terms of seed being mature and viable. Some of the expert posters on the Growing Tomatoes forum suggested it, and I've saved seed that germinated fine from fruits ripened in this way before.
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Congrats! I hope it tastes, and I bet that it does, as good as you hope it will. As far as the "cat-facing", and when I say "cat-facing", I'm actually referring to the oddly-shaped tomatoes resulting from fused blossoms (megablooms), I saved seed from the first Pink Berkeley Tie Die this year that was a massive megabloom, and the seedlings are now big enough to harden off and transplant into the garden for fall. It will be interesting to see if they come true. I suspect that they were caused due to cool weather, etc., but who knows? I may get something entirely surprising when the fruit shows up. :) Oh mercy, I hate to hear that you don't have air conditioning!!! Please be careful in this heat. I never understood why my long-gone mother-in-law would never put a/c in her house in Tennessee. She never had a/c in her life, and wasn't going to start. She did have big shade trees, which helped, but it still got pretty warm. I could (and have) lived without a heater, but I couldn't get by without a/c.
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Thanks double/double D's :), this year there were very few catfacing problems and I think that was due to a very mild spring (for a change) without big hits of cold air in May. Out of 30 plants maybe 4-5 catfacing tomatoes this season. One of them is huge, guessing 2#, hate to toss it in the compost pile. Carving it up for eating doesn't seem worth it with the bumper crop of nicely shaped ones. This is about about Sudduth BWs and Cherokee Purple seed saving. The maters are so attractive that unfortunately the squirrels like them too.
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Hybrids do not have true-to-type seeds. You find out if it's Open pollenated/OP or a hybrid by the seller telling you. In this case Burpee does not say if it's an F1 hybrid or a stabilized open-pollenated but they imply it's a hybrid. I googled the name, one seller I found said it was F1, another said OP. Save the seeds and find out I suppose.
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mulio
15 years ago
At the risk of mischka making something else I say out of context..

here's my recommendation
beastmaker
15 years ago
For some reason squirrels get lead poisoning around my garden. . .
trudi_d
15 years ago
There is absolutely no greater joy in the world for my dog than when I open up the kitchen door to let her out and she sees "The SQUIRREL!!!" Before I can finish saying 'Run him off!' she is down the steps and halfway across the yard chasing Mr. Squirrel as he runs along the top of the stockade fence.

Lizzy spends most of the year sitting alert in the garden, overseeing her world and protecting it from little grey interlopers. She is the hard working watch dog, forever protecting precious tomatoes from those who would threaten them as they grow.

Here is a link that might be useful:
catman529
15 years ago
Just shows he had good taste and skipped over the hybrid tomatoes for a nice open-pollinated one

LOL that is true.
cleo88
Original Author
15 years ago
My husband always laughs at me when I see the deer eating my hosta and I go out there and start screaming at them and shaking my housekeys.

This year, I am thinking of having a little pile of small rocks near the back door that I can wing at any animals that DARE to look at my precious heirlooms. :)
bcskye
15 years ago
Lizzy, may you live a long, happy, squirrel chasing life. LOL! I lost my little mole destroying ASD a year ago last fall and my deer chasing GSD last June. Got a 9 month old GSD in early December and know he will chase rabbits. Hoping he will pick up habits of my previous loves and help protect my garden.

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