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Yes, No, Maybe?

15 years ago

A short while ago DH cut open a beautiful, large, ripe tomato to slice to put on his sandwich. Then he was asking me if it was okay to eat a tomato that was sprouting on the inside. Sure enough, some seeds had sprouted, were green and starting to uncurl, actually, one was about 1/4" in length. He is not going to eat it, but what are other opinions? I know tomato plants are in the nightshade family, poisonous. I would not eat a seedling because of this and we are not eating the tomato. I am thinking about saving seeds from this beauty.

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Comments (5)

John Liu
15 years ago
Tomato fruit are not poisonous. Tomato seeds are not poisonous either. There's no harm in eating it.
colleenoz
15 years ago
I wouldn't eat the sprout, you're not supposed to eat potato sprouts because they concentrate the solanin and I would think the tomato sprout would as well. Probably wouldn't kill you but might make you unwell if there were enough of them.
I'd just pick it out and eat the rest of the tomato (but then I like to walk on the wild side ;-) )
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jimster
15 years ago
I eould feel safe removing the sprout and eating the tomato. I would not expect the sprouted seed to have any effect on the fruit.

With regard to saving and planting seeds of that tomato, it's quite likely it is a hybrid. In that case tomatoes grown from the seeds will not be identical to the one you have. They will have some assortment of traits from the parents of the hybrid. You might get some very nice tomatoes and you might not.

Jim
bcskye
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks everyone.

John, I knew the fruit and seeds from tomato plants were edible, but the plants themselves were poisonous, just wasn't too comfortable about eating the green sprouts.

Colleenoz and Jim, I thought picking out the sprouting seeds would make the rest of the tomato edible, but wanted other opinions. Colleenoz, the wild side is sometimes fun and good.

Jim, I know you won't get tomatoes the same as the one you get the seed from if the original was hybrid. I'm just curious as to what traits it would pass on to offspring. The large size? The flavor? The color? It would be an interesting experiment. I usually stick with heirlooms, but this silly tomato has fascinated me.
sissyz
15 years ago
bcskye,
The problem with grocery store tomatoes is that they are no longer grown for flavor. They are grown for durability. That is the priority. To get from California or Florida or Mexico or Chile' without bruising. That's why they look and feel and taste more like bocce balls than the fabulous ones you can grow in the garden. The hybrids you purchase in the grocery stores are not even given real names. Kinda sad, but they are identified by numbers...
by the way, you'd have to consume an entire tomato plant, leaves and all, to feel any of the, uh, negative gastric effects from the chemical tomatine, so your sprouted tomato is safe!

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