Saving your Tomatoe seeds

[DonnaMarieNJ]

My first attempt was in 2013. I had 50% results. And by that I mean that only every other batch that I saved was good. So half the time I did it correctly. I would like to get it right every time

[cjp1953]

Thank you all that offered advice and methods.I'm going to try it this year and see if I get good results in the spring.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by DonnaMarieNJ

My first attempt was in 2013. I had 50% results. And by that I mean that only every other batch that I saved was good. So half the time I did it correctly. I would like to get it right every time

Getting good germination is the result of two things,first,how one saves seeds and then how one sows those seeds,which is a different issue.

And I hope most of you noticed that I put up a thread in General Discussion and asked for feedback on what I propose to do to see how many would be interested and any constructive suggestions about my proposal the way I see it being structured.

Carolyn

[DonnaMarieNJ]

Yes, the above post was SUPPOSED to be in the other thread. As usual, I posted in the wrong place!

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by DonnaMarieNJ

Yes, the above post was SUPPOSED to be in the other thread. As usual, I posted in the wrong place!

Donna M, the other thread is for seeds from my 2014 seed offer that were germinated in 2014. Just germination reports, not updates on how the plants were doing.

Carolyn

[Worth1]

Worth

[daninpd]

Go with the sticky for saving seed. A few years ago I was noticing some kind of late season crud on plants from my saved seeds and that year sprinkled some Ajax over them at the end of fermentation. Don't know who suggested it, but they all came up fine later. Can't really say if it helped, but would like to know if you and other knowledgable people consider things like this to really help.

I prefer to have your thread and to know who suggested it over my memory and dining-table filing system for record keeping.

[Tomato Beth]

I'd definitely love to see some more on it since I am still new to saving seed.

[carolyn137]

I had said in an earlier thread that I would write what might be a FAQ on how to save seeds and said I would do it after Wimbledon tennis was done, which was a week ago today.

But in the meantime some "stuff" came up, like Bank America telling me in ane-mail and also by phone that oneof my plastic cards might have been compromised and to be safe they were sending me a new card.

Having gone through this before I just LOVE calling the places where I have autopay and giving the new info.

Summary, I still intend to write that article and in that earlier thread I asked if folks would want it, and yes, they all wanted it.

Carolyn, who is NOT going to list ALL the stuff she's had to put up with this past week.

[Tomato Beth]

Carolyn, make sure to call the three credit reporting agencies and put a fraud alert on your account. Transunion and experian are two of them. I can't remember the 3rd. I've been there with this problem before, and it is a pain!! I hope it's solved soon.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Beth Carlock

Carolyn, make sure to call the three credit reporting agencies and put a fraud alert on your account. Transunion and experian are two of them. I can't remember the 3rd. I've been there with this problem before, and it is a pain!! I hope it's solved soon.

Everything is under control, Bank America said that that card MAY be compromised by either a merchant or a service provider and that my original card was good until Jul 22.

The minute the new one came I activated it and called the two autopays on it which were my browser and DishTV and switched to the new one.

My cards don't leave the house,b 'c I don't anymore, sadly,and I order nothing online at all, just by phone and it's the same places that I've done so for many years.

What WAS bad was two years ago when again BA contacted me , the fraud unit actually, and said that they follow accounts and that 5 Apple i tunes had been charged, but if those went thru most folks who steal card numbers up the ante and they went ahead and sent me a new card, but my browser didn't get the info in time, and next I know I turn on the computer and nada.

That one was a difficult one to solve.

And yes I have IE, Chrome and Firefox on the desktop but stayed with my original browser since my computer man and friend, who is very experienced, could not transfer my faves to any of them, and I must have my faves, all 2500 of them.

Carolyn

[SharonRossy]

Caroline, credit card fraud is terrible and so is having to go through the whole mess that comes with it. But of course, you must keep all those faves at your fingertips! I can't wait till you write your FAQ on saving seed! Please let us know! Hopefully, before the U.S. Open, lol! I just hope to have some great tomatoes this year to save seeds from.
Sharon

[jmsieglaff]

I read through the tutorial on Tatiana's and it was very helpful. One question being my first summer saving seeds, is there a 'minimum' amount of seed/gel/goup needed to conduct a fermentation? I'm wanting to save seed from my first tomatoes of some varieties, but also want to eat them too. I have 9oz clear plastic cups for the task. Would 2 or 3 halves of tomatoes be sufficient? I would just keep them on the counter until enough from the same variety was ready. Or would just doing one half at a time be enough 'material'? My intuition says no, but really I'm just guessing (obviously this depends on the size of tomato as well). The other thought is it just depends on the size of your container or maybe it doesn't matter at all. Any thoughts from ones that save seeds would be appreciated. I am planning on saving seed from multiple fruit as was suggested in various places here.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by jmsieglaff

I read through the tutorial on Tatiana's and it was very helpful. One question being my first summer saving seeds, is there a 'minimum' amount of seed/gel/goup needed to conduct a fermentation? I'm wanting to save seed from my first tomatoes of some varieties, but also want to eat them too. I have 9oz clear plastic cups for the task. Would 2 or 3 halves of tomatoes be sufficient? I would just keep them on the counter until enough from the same variety was ready. Or would just doing one half at a time be enough 'material'? My intuition says no, but really I'm just guessing (obviously this depends on the size of tomato as well). The other thought is it just depends on the size of your container or maybe it doesn't matter at all. Any thoughts from ones that save seeds would be appreciated. I am planning on saving seed from multiple fruit as was suggested in various places here.

IMO doing 1/2 at a time would not be the best way to go unless it was a very rare variety and hard to get seeds for.
A 9 oz plastic glass isn't that big, and I don't know which varieties, it makes a difference as to how seedy, how much juice, , how big the fruits are but maybe just two fruits in the 9 oz would be enough and then you could eat the rest.

I always used one pint plastic containers and sometimes I could process only 2-3 fruits at a time, depending on the variety.

Please be sure you don't cover the fermentation and if the goop is too thick at first you can add a bit of water as well.

Any other questions? I know I said above I wasn't going to answer questions now since saving seeds starts with how a person grows their plants, and how many/variety in the first place, but if the question isn't a complicated one I sure can try to help.

Carolyn, who definitely intends to do the FAQ on saving tomato seeds but is so behind on e-mails, checking with seed producers,dealing with a local problem where someone, we think we know who, shot a deer in the head and left it in the ditch, across the road from where I live, and trust me, so much more, oh a new plastic card from BA b'c it might have been compromised, dealing with all the autopays on that card. OK, I'll shut up now, just too much to deal with in terms of starting to write that FAQ, and fact is, that saving tomato seeds starts with how you plant them and how many, in the first place.

[jmsieglaff]

Thanks a lot Carolyn, I appreciate it. I look forward to your write up down the road. In the meantime the tutorial I read through has helped me have a good idea of how to proceed.

I suppose the one question would be, in general, is there a certain depth the goop should be for fermentation or doesn't that really matter.

I will sacrifice the first couple fruits of the varieties I want to save and just process the entire tomato.