id tomato? And how to save seed?

11 years ago

So I've been buying this tomato at the store lately, and all it says is "heirloom". I know it's bought reasonably local, and the dept manager is going to try & contact the vendor to see if they can id it. Thought I'd toss a pic on here - even though I realize so many tomatoes look the same. When I first bought it, it was $1.60 a pound. Today it was marked up to $2.88! These 4 tomatoes cost me just under $9.00, so you know that's gonna end - lol (pic has some romas for scale)

It has a fantastic flavor, so I'd like to see if I can germinate some seeds to add to my tomato selections for this year - I don't know if it's a sterile hybrid or what, but it doesn't hurt to try. What is the procedure for saving tomato seeds? Any guesses what it might be? (the ribbed ones, and no, they aren't ripe yet)

Thanks!

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Comments (17)

coatfetish
Original Author
11 years ago
oops! Don't know what happened to my pic, here it is;
edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, Sunset 28
11 years ago
I saved tomato seeds once by the "fermenting" method. It worked well for me. I don't exactly remember the process, but I'm sure if you research it a little you'll find it.
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Well, this is very interesting. Albert, you are so lucky to have had such a gardening heritage given to you. It sounds like the method your grandmother used, is like the method Trudi reports too. I find it fascinating to learn of the 'old ways' of doing things. Just my personal opinion, but I suspect that too often lots of valuable information and experiences have been lost along the way in the mad dash to advance technology. I suppose we have new problems now that we never had before too, though. Like the number of pathogens that can effect a plant. Trudi, I like that paper towel method, but I guess I would have to think that any method that could reduce pathogens, especially with tomatoes, might be the way to go. It always amazes me that pathogens transfer to the seeds themselves. Especially after drying them out, I would have thought a pathogen couldn't live under those conditions. You surprise me to say saving SunSugar could be worthwhile. I do follow your thinking about the process of selective evolution of tomato plants. I guess I have such a small garden with only 6 hours of sun maximum that my vegetable gardening efforts have morphed into less of a focus for me. If I had room to grow 10-20 tomato plants in full sun, I would find it a pleasure to attempt that kind of a process. I guess I could try to follow it, for a couple of years, anyway, with the space and number of plants I can do, because as you suggest, it is to produce plants that thrive in my backyard conditions. I grew Sungold every year for the last five but they were out this year and I bought SunSugar. Now, if I had been saving Sungold seed all this time, well, I'd be well on my way to having that dependable tomato plant. :-) Thanks....
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Thanks Seedmama, I saved the PDF to my bookmarks! Keith
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Bill, Boy, my sucker is smaller than yours, but it's coming along: Rooting Rutgers The original that I took the sucker from is the plant on the left: My homemade Earthbuckets are doing their second year of duty, and I plant veggies in them that I want right by the kitchen door. determinate tomatoes, a couple of pepper plants, lettuce, and bush cukes. My entire deck is lined with them! That hole in the bucket is a perforated aeration tube (covered with a piece of nylon curtain!) that goes through the soil chamber, just above the wick. I don't think I'll construct the next ones this way but rather will drill several aeration holes just at the overflow hole level and let the aeration occur from the area between the water and the bottom of the soil chamber, see if that works as well. Nevertheless, these have worked just fine.
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Image by: wintersown It's nice to be able to save your own tomato seeds! You may have brought home a particularly delicious tomato from the supermarket, or gotten an heirloom tomato from a Farmer's Market, or grown one in your own garden that is so wonderful you want to save the seeds from it and grow them next year. Nothing ever tastes quite as good as a home-grown tomato! So, how do you save the seeds? The method is easy to do....it's a little gloppy, and it's a little funky, but you'll be able to save seeds in a manner that will lesson the occurence of tomato disease while giving you plenty of seeds to germinate, and with left-overs to share or trade. This seed saving process is a process of fermentation. Select to save seeds from a tomato that has a flavor that you love....if you're a home gardener and saving seeds from tomatoes that are growing in your garden choose tomatoes from the very healthiest looking plants. Take your chosen tomato and slice it in half across the middle (it's "equator"). With a spoon or your well-washed fingers scoop out the seeds and their gelatinous "goo" into a clean cup or container. Add a couple of tablespoons of water to the seeds. Cover the container with a piece of plastic-wrap and then poke the plastic-wrap with a paring knife or pen point to put a small hole in it...this is to allow for air-transpiration. (A little fresh air needs to get in and out of the cup to help foster fermentation.) Place the container of seeds in a warm location; a sunny windowsill or the top of the refrigerator are both excellent sites to place the container of seeds. Now Mother Nature will take over and begin to ferment the seed and water mixture. This takes about two or three days. Each night remove the plastic-wrap, stir the seed and water mixture, and then replace the plastic-wrap, if you use a new sheet of plastic-wrap then don't forget to put a small hole in it for air-transpiration. The top of the liquid will look "scummy" when the fermentation process has seperated the "goo" from the seeds. It also helps destroy many of the possible tomato diseases that can be harbored by seeds. Take the container of fermented seeds to the sink and with a spoon carefully remove the scummy surface. Then pour the container's contents into a fine kitchen sieve and rinse the seeds with water several times...stir them while they're in the sieve to assure that all surfaces are thoroughly rinsed. Give a few sharp taps to the sieve to help remove as much loose water as possible from the seeds. Line an open plate with a piece of waxed paper or a large automatic-drip coffee filter. Place the rinsed seeds onto the wax paper or coffee filter and spread them about so they are in a single layer. Place the plate in a safe location where the seeds can dry for a few days. Stir the seeds a few times during the drying process to assure that all their surfaces are evenly dry. Spread them out again into a single layer after each time you've stirred them. Tomato seeds are thick and can take up to a week to dry thoroughly. If you're having a rainy week that drying time may lengthen by a few days. How do I know when the seeds are dry? Dried seeds move quickly and easily across a plate, they do not stick to each other. How do I store them? I like paper packets or some folks like plastic. Whichever envelope style you choose is a matter of personal preferance. If you choose to store your seeds in plastic the seeds must be BONE DRY....otherwise any moisture in the seeds will be transferred to all seeds inside the plastic packet, it will foster mildew and rotting and the seeds will be ruined. How do I label them? Tomatoes are generally self-pollinated so there is rarely a chance of cross-breeding. If you save and trade your seeds you might wish to describe your trade offering as "open-pollinated" tomato seeds. That way the trader knows that Mother Nature was solely involved in the fertilization of the flower which produced the tomato that you have saved seeds from. Onto the packet write the tomato variety name (if you know it) or a very good description if you don't, add the term "open-pollinated" if you're sharing or trading your tomato seeds, and also add the current year to the packet description. And that's that! Do enjoy saving tomato seeds and growing your own tomatoes at home from them. Home-saved tomato seeds are a wonderful gift to tuck into a holiday card for when you want to add a "little something extra", or to share with friends and neighbors. Trudi Davidoff
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digdirt2
11 years ago
No way to ID the fruit - could be any one of 50 or more ruffled varieties. But if they were labeled 'heirloom' accurately then they should be open=pollinated and not hybrids. Unfortunately the label heirloom is often mis-used.

Linked the how to save seeds FAQ below plus there are many, many discussions here about how to do it that the search will pull up.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: FAQ - How to save tomato seeds
coatfetish
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks everyone! I knew id-ing them was too much of a longshot, but they look so darn pretty I had to share. I must love that squat, ribbed look, because I picked a pumpkin to try growing that has the same shape - lol. They say people start to look like their pets - I hope I don't start to look like my vegetables ; )

I'll read up on the link, and look up fermenting method too - thanks a bunch!

edit to say; wonderful! The link was the fermentation method, and it sounds so very simple. I appreciate your help!

This post was edited by coatfetish on Mon, Apr 8, 13 at 23:32
lgteacher
11 years ago
Tomato seeds seem to be easy to germinate. I was at a tomato tasting last summer and saved a few seeds from a tomato I liked on a paper napkin. I planted them this spring and now I have a new variety of tomato for my garden.
missingtheobvious
11 years ago
coatfetish, I bought a tomato just like that yesterday. It was labelled "Vintage Ripes: Authentic Tomato Flavor." 12 oz.

I could still start seeds....
carolyn137
11 years ago
coatfetish, I bought a tomato just like that yesterday. It was labelled "Vintage Ripes: Authentic Tomato Flavor." 12 oz.
I could still start seeds....

%%%%%%

I'm sorry but I'm sitting here laughing and asking what authentic tomato flavor is like as opposed to non-authentic tomato flavor.

And labelled Vintage Ripes?

I googled that and came up with a thread from here at GW many years ago and linked to it below.

Happy reading. ( smile)

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Vintage Ripe tomatoes
digdirt2
11 years ago
labelled "Vintage Ripes: Authentic Tomato Flavor." 12 oz.

WOW! talk about inventive marketing hype. Anything to charge the consumer more money. :)

Did it actually weigh 12 oz. or was that invented hype too?

Dave
missingtheobvious
11 years ago
Thanks for the link, Carolyn.

I'm well aware I'm a pushover for Italian tomatoes (all those centuries of tomato sauce expertise!!!), Latin American varieties (the ancestral home of the tomato!!!), and ribbed tomatoes (awww: they're so cute).

At one point in that thread it looked like the cute ribbed tomato sitting in my kitchen came from the Procacci Bros. (let's all hissss in chorus) but later that turned out to be someone's faulty memory. But now it's just probably a hybrid.

Well, let's hope it tastes as good as it looks.
===

laughing and asking what authentic tomato flavor is like as opposed to non-authentic tomato flavor

There's a store-owner here in the county who boasts that the product he sells is so great he installed the very same brand "in my own personal house."

And every time I wonder, What's an impersonal house? And, How many houses does the guy own? Does he have a personal house and an impersonal house? Any other kind of house?
missingtheobvious
11 years ago
And like coatfetish, I'm also a pushover for squat, ribbed pumpkins.

coatfetish, maybe we're Twins Separated At Birth....
missingtheobvious
11 years ago
Another addendum:

No, Dave, the "12 oz." wasn't on the label. It was courtesy of the store's scale. An even 3/4 lb.

I don't know what size the grower was aiming for. ;-)
coatfetish
Original Author
11 years ago
lol - what great comments. I don't know why, but I never get email notifications when postings are made, even though I click on the proper tab for notices. I've seen the same complaint on many subforums here...

missingtheobvious, your "twins separated at birth" comment really cracked me up...we certainly have an artful eye!

I'm going to start signing my name, because these monikers are too darned long to type - lol

~ Cindy ~
caryltoo Z7/SE PA
11 years ago
Our grocery store sells an "heirloom" that looks like yours and actually tastes OK for a store tomato. It's called an "Ugly Ripe." Ours are 3.99 a pound, and I don't think they're good enough that I'd want to grow one. Then again, how can you tell what a store bought tomato would taste like straight off the vine rather than picked early, shipped, stored etc.
eahamel
11 years ago
The two that are the most deeply ribbed may be costoluto genovese, look at the pictures I linked to below. The plum shaped ones look like a Roma of some sort and the other one may be a brandywine, or may not. It's really hard to tell, unless it's something really obvious, like a striped tomato or green one, and even then, there's more than one option. I think the price in your store is great! Where I am, they are around $3.99 if not higher, and I only get them for the seed, to grow the next year. And, of course, I enjoy the tomato, too.

Here is a link that might be useful: costoluto genovese tomato
coatfetish
Original Author
11 years ago
Oh, the roma tomatoes I'm not interested in - I only bought them because I needed ripe tomatoes for my salad - lol.

I think the other four are all the same - at least i would assume so. I turned one of the ribbed ones upside-down to show it's blossom end.

They ripen up really fast - they're mostly ripe when they hit the store anyhow. And I would NOT pay $4 a pound for tomatoes! I ate one of the tomatoes today, between lunch and dinner - and I forgot to save seeds, haha. Oh well, next one!

Interestingly, I first thought of costoluto genovese too, when I first saw them - but that was because I'd just been reading about them and thinking of getting seed off ebay. hmm...
edit to say I just looked up pics of c. genovese, and whatever I have looks just like it, except the seed/gel cavities in mine are much, much smaller. Maybe just the strain. Love their sweet/tangy taste, so I'll be trying my own saved seeds on this one.

This post was edited by coatfetish on Tue, Apr 9, 13 at 21:21
missingtheobvious
11 years ago
UglyRipe (aka Ugly) is Procacci Bros. (hissss!) and is generally believed to be Marmande -- or Marmande hybridized for disease tolerances.

The shape is variable: some have the squat, ribby shape of the tomatoes in coatfetish's pic, while others are the ribby pear-shape that I call "gathered-purse" because they resemble a drawstring bag.

I bought an UglyRipe once; it was a wide gathered-pear shape and had a mild taste. The cells were semi-hollow.

- mto
coatfetish
Original Author
11 years ago
I've seen Procacci Bros. mentioned before on this site, what/who is it?

id tomato? And how to save seed?

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coatfetish
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