Saving Tomato Seed ?
authereray
7 years ago
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saving tomato seeds, partially ripe?
Comments (1)Hi Susan, A tomato is ripe for seed saving when it is ripe to eat. (Some things must be over ripe, eggplant and cucumbers are examples of that.) It is best to wait until a tomato is fully ripe to save seeds. A bit over ripe is fine. If really under ripe, you will get no viable seed. If a bit under ripe, you may not get as many good seed, but will still get some that are usable. It is easiest to think of the fruit as a womb, and waiting for the seeds is like a pregnancy. You want to go full term for the healthiest babies. Tomato crossing rates are very low. It does happen though. So it is best to save seed from multiple fruit. The chances of all the fruit being crossed is very low so you know you'll have true seed. Hope this helps, Remy...See MoreBest way fo saving tomato seeds
Comments (1)The video is not visible....See MoreCan I save tomatoe seeds after blanching the tomatoes?
Comments (11)Thanks everyone for all the input and advice! I wanted a lot of seeds because I hoped to offer them to the people on seed savers forum who donated seeds to a program with people who have profound disabilities where I work. These are probably a named tomato but I don't know the variety. The Swartzentruber Amish family I buy them from doesn't know the type. They just call it a low acid tomato and have been saving the seeds for "a long time". The plants produce an amazing yield of large to very large tomatoes. The fruit is meaty and most are round or oblong, rarely lumpy and excellent for slicing. They have good old fashioned flavor. I actually like the flavor of the brandywine and better yet, Cleota Pinks a little more, but these are very worthy tomatoes. From the road or vegetable stand I can't tell if the plants are potato leafed or not. I did save seeds from several nice tomatoes that weren't blanched. Instead of fermenting them the way I usually do, I placed them in a tupperware sandwich container with pinholes punched all through the lid (from different project). They got moldy!!!!!! Don't know if I'll have any to share or not. Might go buy a few more. They sell individually for .50 a piece. So.. that's the story behind the seeds! Linda Renee...See MoreHow do I save tomato seeds?
Comments (18)Carolyn ,does the fermentation method destroy all pathogens ? If so is this due to the long soaking ? You stated above "only hot water treatment can be used for the bacteria" which isn't used in the fermentation method .So please explain. Would the clorine method be more effect with a longer soak time ? What diseases can these pathogens cause ? ***** No, fermentation does not remove all pathogens as I think I said above when I said that it lessened the amount on the seed coat and since infection is a quantitative process it means a lesser chance of passing on certain seed borne pathogens. Above I said that all bacterial and viral pathogens, to date, have been found in the endosperm of the seed and that's the interior part of the seed so they are not removed by any method except the specialized hot water treatment. I can't answer the question about a longer soak time with chlorine being more effective since I don't know any data available to say which pathogens can be lessened and how effective, so there's no baseline to go from. Which diseases can these pathogens cause? I don't know how to answer your question b/c I don't know which pathogens you're referring to. ( smile) In WI where you live the most prevalent tomato diseases are the foliage diseases and the four major ones are Early Blight ( A. solani), Septoria Leaf Spot, Bacterial Speck and Bacterial Spot, but the first two are fungal and I do know that Dr. Dillard's results showed that those two fungal ones were lessened with Fermentation. You also can have occasional Verticillium, but rarely Fusarium, and I do know that Fusarium is lessened on the seed coat but can't remember if Verticillium is but would assume so. The long ago words about what fermentation could accomplish are as follows, but the data that came later proved some of them to not be true. Helps remove the gel on the seeds; very true, so you end up with fluffy seeds the same as you'd buy. Inactivates seed borne pathogens; later data has indicated which ones The acid conditions of the fermentation kill viruses; not true since those viruses tested to date are not on the seed coat. Commercial seed producers often TSP to treat their seeds b'c it's known that TSP can destroy TMV ( Tobacco Mosaic Virus), but don't ask me how b'c I don't know. LOL TSP treated seeds are pretty easy to ID b'c the seeds are smaller than normal, not fuzzy, and much darker in color. The mold that forms on atop the the fermentation has fungi that produce antibiotics that can kill or lessen any bacterial pathogens; not true b'c as said above, those bacterial pathogens tested to date, and that's not ALL of them, are in the endosperm of the seed. Hope that helps. Carolyn, who also thinks that many home growers as well as many of the smaller seed companies who sell tomato seed, and many of them produce their own seed although some subcontract out and some buy wholesale off the shelf ro a combo of those methods, use fermentation b'c they don't want to use anything other than the natural means that the tomatoes do themselves as to dropped fruits leading to more of the same kind, all a part of the natural life cycle of the tomato. And I forgot to mention that both TSP and actual acids are two other ways that commercial seed producers produce their seed. Lots of info on the net about that....See Moreauthereray
7 years agoTurbo Cat (7a)
7 years agoauthereray
7 years agoauthereray
7 years agoTurbo Cat (7a)
7 years agoauthereray
7 years ago
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