We had Heinz contracted fields close to here. They let people glean after the harvest. An old city truck farmer, may he rest in peace, got some, picked some for seeds and started growing them. They were great. My MIL got some and canned them. I don't know how to save seeds, thought you waited until before frost but guess not. Marigolds are intuitive, and I saved bunches of those, if I have any left, they're pretty old. My rudbeckias died early from drought, do you think the seeds will be any good from them? They were really varied and colorful this year. How about my crazy daisies that died a little sooner, would the seeds still be good, assuming I can tell what's what? I think I wait until the phlox seed pods turn brown are just about ready to pop. Echinacea, ugh. I don't know where they came from, the same old pink ones and yellow harvest moon I don't like much. They self seed easily. I have baby tulip trees all over the yard from my neighbor's tree, hate to kill them. Potted one up and will sink it in the ground for winter. Really nice, big, tidy trees with distinctive leaves. The seeds are too high to reach. If he'd let me have some, I might be able to use my apple picker. They have to be easy to grow if you winter sow them. What about Becky Shasta? I noticed a small clump that has obviously self seeded. Alyssum grow and shed like a ladder so I guess those you have to collect as they grow. Mine are all gone, and they were so pretty. Maybe one yet will spring up. They spread better than a lot of varieties and the flowers were dense, also did well in part shade and withstood drought well. But something happened, and none came back, think bigger, stronger self seeders took their space.

I had to harvest my heirloom paste tomatoes while still green when I started to see some indication of late blight. I've been using them for green tomato chow, relish, etc. But some of them are ripening quite fast. Will the seed from these indoor ripened tomatoes still be viable?

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

was close but did not know about the number of traits Well, of course this is critical here. For a simplistic illustration, assume that a hybrid was created on the basis of ONE crossed trait, say, AA and aa as parents, respectively Dominant and recessive for target trait. So ya get hybrid with Aa or aA for target trait... and that is all for that genetic marker. At F2, its seeds produce an equal mix of Aa, AA, aa and aA. Now 75% of them will have the appearance of the hybrid for that trait and 50% are hybrids (Aa and aA). Double the hybrid traits by adding another trait, say, BB and bb to the above mix. So Bb, BB, bb and bB are included genetic markers in F1's seeds. So at F2 you have a mix of 9 double or single dominant alleles BUT also a mix of 7 that include either (or both) aa or bb (0.5625 hybrid essential traits and 0.4375 including non-desired trait or traits... 0.75^2 and 1-0.75^2, respectfully). And these seven types (yes, a greater percentage can be culled here from totals compared to T=1, but ya still are left with a lot more plants to trial compared to those at F2 where T=1) can be de-selected for purposes of "de-hybridization", but one is still left with a pile to sort out at F3, requiring at least 8 grow-outs of of each of the selected phenotypes. With an increasing number of crossed traits involved in hybrid creation, it becomes exponentially more "complicated", if you will, to effect "de-hybridization". Simply a matter that the potential numbers involved can become rather unmanageable. Not impossible, but highly problematic and requiring many, many generations. Methuselah could perhaps have accomplished this in his/her lifetime... parenthetically, I have never encountered such an entity.