Saving your Tomatoe seeds

[cjp1953]

I know this has been asked before,please forgive me for that.Do you just wash your seeds clean from the jell of the tomatoe and store in a ziplock bag?I want to save some Black Krim seeds and start my own plants next spring.I've never done this before and they are hard to find,not many nurseries sell these.One will order them if your buy a flat,I think there's around 12 plants.I only need a few as my garden is only 12'x12'.

[heirloomtomaguy]

You pull out the seeds and juice of the tomato and put them i a ziplock bag with just a touch of water. Very little water. Allow the seeds to ferment. It usually takes between 3-7 days her in So Cal. The mixture usually has just a bit of mold on it. After fermentation pull out the mixture put it on a screened colander and rinse all of the mold and gel off of the seeds. Put them on a paper plate and allow them to dry for 2-4 weeks depending on the humidity of where you live. Then put them in your favorite container for storage.

[Worth1]

First off somewhere here is thread or post on seed fermenting and I cant find it.
Somewhere there should be a sticky with this information on it and then locked.
I think it should be called saving and fermenting tomato seed.

Where is this important information at?
Am I just not seeing it.

Worth

[Worth1]

Ok I found what I am ;looking for on Tatianas Tomato base.

Here is the link with all of the pretty pictures, it is everything you need to know.

I feel this link should be a sticky so folks can find it.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...Q5aY8unKBBWGSA

I dont ferment seeds myself I just separate the jell from the seeds in a tea strainer and let them dry.
A real hard way to do it.

Worth

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Worth1

Ok I found what I am ;looking for on Tatianas Tomato base.

Here is the link with all of the pretty pictures, it is everything you need to know.

I feel this link should be a sticky so folks can find it.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...Q5aY8unKBBWGSA

I dont ferment seeds myself I just separate the jell from the seeds in a tea strainer and let them dry.
A real hard way to do it.

Worth

Worth, there are many ways of saving seeds, be they fermentation, oxidative, acid, TSP or doing nothing.

When I was still at GW I coordinated the development of several new FAQ's and it was a brutal process. Mischka in the past has urged the Mods to do Faq's and I've held back as have the others/

But I think it's time to reconsider, at least for me.

Here's what I propose.

An eventual sticky where I do the first post and point out that before saving seeds one needs to know how to prevent cross pollination. I'd link to the GW FAQ for that.

Then discuss that the purtiy of seeds is dependent on what use the person has for those seeds.

Then reinforce that one should never save seeds from just one fruit, and why, and then briefly discuss the pros and cons of the two most often methods used by home growers.

Then I'd discuss what I did and why I did what I did.

Then, rather than trying to make ONE FAQ let folks describe what they do as long as I'm allowed to raise questions/edit about what some might post. I could do it anyway as a Global Mod here, but courtesy comes first.

So if there's any interest in my doing so I'd sacrifice myself up to the task. Oh and I'd ask that those who post had had LOTS of experience with what they do.

Wimbledon starts a week from today, and I do have my priorities and am so far behind right now with e-mails, bills, dealing with my retirement fund, trying to deal with an hypochondriac neighbor, and losing, etc., and I do have my proiorities, so after Wimbledon, I could have a go at it.

I don't know how many read this Seed starting Forum, but Im not going to do anything unless convinced that it's something that quite a few folks want me to do.

Carolyn

[rwsacto]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

.....
I don't know how many read this Seed starting Forum, but Im not going to do anything unless convinced that it's something that quite a few folks want me to do.

Carolyn

Unfortunately, (IMHO) the majority of folks who would want this valuable compendium are either beginners or future forum members.
(a silent majority?)

I would like to see it.

Rick

[Stvrob]

Is there any point, after the seeds are fermented and rinsed, to let them soak for an hour or two in a mild (100 ppm) bleach solution?

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by rwsacto

Unfortunately, (IMHO) the majority of folks who would want this valuable compendium are either beginners or future forum members.
(a silent majority?)

I would like to see it.

Rick

Rick, my target audience would be for beginners and folks new to seed saving.

All I said above is that I prefer that those who post their methods had had lots of experiences, viz. not beginners/

Carolyn

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Stvrob

Is there any point, after the seeds are fermented and rinsed, to let them soak for an hour or two in a mild (100 ppm) bleach solution?

Some do, some don't but I don't know of any good reason to do so.

It also depends on the plants the fruits were taken from, whether they had this or that disease, since all bacterial foliage disease bad guys are in the endosperm of the seed, for instance, and fermentation and oxidative methods can only remove ( and we have no info about the efficacy of oxidateve methods) pathogens on the exteriorof the seed, and not all of them either.

We have good data from Dr. Helene Dillard on what fermentation can accomplish and that's good data.

Most folks let the seeds dry and then shortly before sowing the seed do the bleach rinse, but again, that also depends on where the pathogen is, inside or on the exterrior of the seed,based on any infection the origin plants had.

And yes, fermentation is also known to lessen the pathogen burden on the seed surface for some systemic diseases as well.

Well here I go again spouting off about seed saving, but I'd just as soon see a show of hands on whether i should do what I proposed.

Carolyn

[Worth1]

Carolyn I would suggest you continue on with your other occupations and when you have the time consider doing what you proposed.

Just my thoughts as every year we have new members and unlike many here they need the help.

Many people are reluctant for what ever reasons to post, start a thread or ask questions and I think it would be a great idea.

Worth

[FarmerShawn]

Carolyn, my hand is waving frantically in favor, as time and energy permits. I love advice and new ideas from experts and experienced folks. Four years ago I hadn't even heard of saving tomato seeds; now I do it with all OP varieties I grow (~150 this year!), though I have not taken the time to bag any blossoms for such efforts.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Worth1

Carolyn I would suggest you continue on with your other occupations and when you have the time consider doing what you proposed.

Just my thoughts as every year we have new members and unlike many here they need the help.

Many people are reluctant for what ever reasons to post, start a thread or ask questions and I think it would be a great idea.

Worth

Worth, I don't have any other occupations, I'm retired.

And I'm considering it NOW, just waiting for feedback from others as to how useful it might be.

Perhaps I should have posted something in General Discussion where more folks would see it.Or at least make a first post linking to this one as reference.

If by occupations, you mean my tennis watching, OK, but that's not a full time job, just when the major tennis opens such as Wimbledon are on, and with the 5 hour time lag from the UK to here on the East Coast, I'll be darned if I'll get up that early to watch.

It's repeated several times, but I try to watch as much as I can of the live matches.

Carolyn

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Worth, I don't have any other occupations, I'm retired.

And I'm considering it NOW, just waiting for feedback from others as to how useful it might be.

Perhaps I should have posted something in General Discussion where more folks would see it.Or at least make a first post linking to this one as reference.

If by occupations, you mean my tennis watching, OK, but that's not a full time job, just when the major tennis opens such as Wimbledon are on, and with the 5 hour time lag from the UK to here on the East Coast, I'll be darned if I'll get up that early to watch.

It's repeated several times, but I try to watch as much as I can of the live matches.

Carolyn

We all have occupations whether we get paid or not.
Right now my mind is occupied looking for a normaly open control valve and several other things.
And thinking about a roasted Cornish game hen with a cornbread stuffing with smoked oysters I'm having tonight.

May I suggest putting something up on the general discussion section about this.
Worth

[kayrobbins]

I hope you will do it. Although I have been saving seeds for awhile I always want to learn more. When I talk about saving seeds from multiple plants I have never been able to fully explain to people why that is so important. I end up saving something about genetic diversity but feel that falls short. There are so many new people that join here that are interested in learning to save seeds so you might as well get them started off doing it right.

[swardson]

This will be my first year collecting seeds since I finally started from seed after 7 years of buying plants. I also want to fly in seeds from other places so knowing a method that can help me put in all the considerations to get >95% germination would be amazing!