Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: JayG on September 08, 2017, 12:13
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Been saving Red Alert seeds for many years, and Gardener's Delight for a few, with no problems at all.
I don't faff about with 'fermenting' the seeds in water for a few days to get rid of the protective jelly-like coating - a gentle rub in a sieve under cold running water seems to work perfectly adequately if you're patient enough.
This year my Red Alert plants died off prematurely having never really recovered from the roasting they got in June, so I took the part-ripe toms off the plants to ripen indoors. Having chosen a good sized healthy tomato to save the seeds from I left it on the window sill for a couple of weeks to make sure it was good and ripe.
After the sieve treatment I emptied the seeds onto a piece of kitchen paper to dry and noticed that nearly every one had already germinated and would therefore be no good at all to sow next year. :ohmy:
So be careful (or even alert ::)) - toms for seed saving need to be ripe but obviously not that ripe! ;)
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I also have seen Tomato seeds germinate in the fruit , B'nut squash too after several months of storage .
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I also have seen Tomato seeds germinate in the fruit , B'nut squash too after several months of storage .
Me too!
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Had the same problem with seed saved from some shop bought toms earlier this year. Luckily(??) it was only a few weeks before my normal sowing time so the sprouted seeds were sown and I ended up with 60 odd plants. I kept 2 and gave a few to friends, but most were sold with the proceeds going to charity.
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I don't even faff about with the sieve. Just spread them on a piece of kitchen towel and leave them to dry. Doesn't matter it a bit of paper gets sown with the seed next year!
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I don't even faff about with the sieve. Just spread them on a piece of kitchen towel and leave them to dry. Doesn't matter it a bit of paper gets sown with the seed next year!
Same here. I cut around them and sow with the paper still attached. I write the variety on the paper with biro and keep them folded up in an envelope so if any do come unstuck they are in the fold and I know what they are.
Never seen them germinating inside the fruit though. Squashes yes and in an orange occasionally
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Tomato seeds are amazing. You can even eat them and they will still germinate.
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Tomato seeds are amazing. You can even eat them and they will still germinate.
Indeed - when I lived in Zambia many years ago, we only discovered a crack in the soil pipe was because of a line of tiny tomato plants springing up in the garden!
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I am pleased to read this...... I had intended giving saved seed a go but now know it really is well worth trying.
I had a good outside tomato crop this year (first time I have bothered with outside toms for years due to blight). The success was down to the right weather, a lot of luck and a free packet of tomato seed from a magazine. I have no idea what the variety was or which magazine the free seeds came from. They were larger than cherry, firm red flesh, fine flavour and juicy.
I now know I can save some seed and, if all goes well, grow another crop next year. They did pretty well in the greenhouse too! :)
Thanks for the heads-up JayG.
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Tomato seeds are amazing. You can even eat them and they will still germinate.
Sounds like a great no-faff way to remove the jelly coating from the seeds, although I reckon you could struggle to find volunteers for the harvest. :unsure: ;)
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Lots of lovely looking tomatoes on the plants around the town sewage works but nobody seems to want them ! :nowink:
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And yet the results of the town sewage works are dried and sold as soil improver in some areas.
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Yes, I remember by brother in law getting compost from the council and having tomato plants everywhere in his garden. This was 50 years ago!
I would have no problem with eating the fruits BUT I don't want to find out the variety thank you,!!!!!!!!!!!!
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The men working at the sewage works in the hot year of 1976 used to collect the tomatoes and sell them on the market. They were very tasty.