Saving Seeds...an
 

Hi...I was hoping to save some seeds from my crop but I do not know if I can ripen my fruit ....This raises my question can seeds be obtained from green fruit that are going soft and fermenting...
Thanks Ron

Most if the time, IF they have color on the blossom end and going up the sides, then the seeds will be good. But not always. I recommend doing a germination test IF you aren't completely sure of their maturity. I still get one or 2 per year that weren't viable. In my case my season is long enough that I can griw mire and let them mature better.

Tom Wagner is about the only person I know who has saved seeds from unripe tomatoes and here's a link that might interest you

[url]http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=9349[/url]

Notice that he uses TSP, tri sodium phosphate,which is VERY corrosive and is also used for cleaning concrete, and should never be used around young children or pets.

Carolyn

Why can't you get ripe fruit to save seed from?
If it's due to disease, do you really want seed for weak and susceptible tomatoes?
KarenO

If your fruit are green and going soft and fermenting prior to ripening then those plants are sick and NO you would NOT even try to save seeds from them. If the plants were healthy with firm green fruit that have some blush, then I might attempt to save seed. I would NEVER save seed from diseased plants you would just be asking for problems from the next generation.

I assume the weather is getting colder there.
If possible I would try to clone the plants you are trying to save seed for and grow a few indoors if possible.

One unexpected early hard frost i pulled a dozen or so plants with green un-ripe fruit
right out of the ground roots and all. Soaked the root mass in warm water to remove
most of the soil and hung up-side down under the stairs in the barn. All the mature
green fruit continued to ripen enough to bring inside. Smaller immature fruit did
nothing but that was expected.
...one possibility for the future or next year.

No, i would not save seed from diseased fruit but worth a try if it was from a healthy
plant with good tasting fruit as Carolyn mentioned.
I would treat and do a germination test. All a learning experience.

Hi...Unfortunately I was never emailed re replies to my thread.....hence my late reply in fact I was just starting to write a new thread having forgotten that I had already posted one??.....Unfortunately the plants I am seeking seeds from were probably late propagating and along with a terrible summer have had everything go against them......I put lights and heat bulbs in my glasshouse overnight for some weeks now specificly to try and get some or a fruit just for a taste test and seeds from each variety but the frosts have now really arrived so I stripped the fruit and have them inside in the warmth ......Some are doing OK but some of the green ones are softening and as Patti basicly says I should simply get rid of these or else they will rot and spread to the good green fruit. ....
From your replies it looks like the fruit need some colour or I could be wasting my time so I will do my best ...There is about 4 varieties that really interest me which are not available here so I am concentrating on them to hopefully get more seeds from my plants...I am also trying some cuttings but I left it rather too late but one never knows....
In my opinion I grew one outstanding Tomato...which apparantly is not available in the USA ...(the Netherlands Tasty Tom) the other varities were just tasteless and this is just not my opinion ..I used some friends as "tasters"...I now have some more seeds for the potato leaf Black Tomato from the lady who thought it was a Black from Tula ..I have tasted one fruit from a cutting she gave me which I grew last year and it was beautiful so I will be concentrating on my seed preparation this coming season and am building a growth chamber to help me in this.....

I have just checked my seed bank and I do have two seeds left of three varieties and one seed of one variety to try again apart from one so it may not succeed ...It was a Daniel Burson and did not like the conditions here at all .....I now know that I made a bad mistake in my growing last season and this I discovered when I started pulling out the plants....the plants that did not grow properly were not transplanted properly and still retained their rootball from a previous container ...I hope I have explained this properly....I feel they should have been transplanted into a large container much earlier before they created a rootball or ??and I am presuming here there is a method one should use to get rid of the rootball prior to transplanting into a large container...so that it grows out into the extra space....Thanks for all your replies ..Rest assured they are very much appreciated.....Regards Ron

If they only had their rootball from the previous container, means that the plant didn't grow much additional roots, which means something was bad. Transplanting rootbound plants should be ok, they should definitely grow.

When transplanting from one container to a bigger one if you have a rootball with alot of roots, gently loosen those roots up. If they wrapped really bad, I generally rip some off the bottom and score the ones on the sides. That will cause the plant to make new feeder roots and start to grow again. Note, that when doing so plants will be in shock for a week or two before taking off again.

Thanks for your replies...Its a pity I never took photographs....however another lesson learnt on why some of my plants thrived and others never ..Cheers Ron