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Post by daylilydude on Jan 11, 2018 5:34:35 GMT -5
Do you mind if there are a lot of seeds in a tomato? Some growers save their seeds, so i'm wondering if you would rather have just a few are does it even matter??
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jan 11, 2018 9:45:24 GMT -5
It depends on the texture of the seeds.
Although I prefer a meaty tomato rather than one that has a ton of gel, in most varieties the seeds are pretty soft and I don't find them very noticeable. But some of the really seedy tomatoes, especially cherries, have seeds that are hard enough to be really noticeable when chewing. They also tend to have a high ratio of gel to meat. I don't like that "juicy bag of seeds" texture at all.
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Jan 11, 2018 10:08:20 GMT -5
I don't eat a ton of raw tomatoes, so haven't really thought about it except for the seed saving aspect of it. I know some varieties don't produce a ton of seeds and I have been disappointed in the past.
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poppopt
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Post by poppopt on Jan 11, 2018 10:14:55 GMT -5
I prefer meaty tomatoes over seedy ones, raw or cooked. If I were saving seeds commercially, I might like seedy ones. But seriously, even a decent sized very meaty tomato probably has 50+ viable seeds in it. (Cherries maybe not as many, but still quite a few.) How many do you need? A few good specimens shouldn't leave anyone short of seeds for the following years.
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Jan 11, 2018 10:29:54 GMT -5
How many do you need? A few good specimens shouldn't leave anyone short of seeds for the following years. You're not a seed hoarder! Us seed hoarders never have enough! Laughing!!!!
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Post by september on Jan 11, 2018 10:59:44 GMT -5
I like a moderate amount of seeds!
Too many, and the tomato tends to be too watery to hold a nice slice well.
Too few, and the slice is mealy and not juicy enough!
Picky, picky, picky! (I'd give almost anything now for even a very seedy slice of home grown tomato!)
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poppopt
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Post by poppopt on Jan 11, 2018 11:03:25 GMT -5
How many do you need? A few good specimens shouldn't leave anyone short of seeds for the following years. You're not a seed hoarder! Us seed hoarders never have enough! Laughing!!!! LOL!! Nope, I guess I'm not a seed hoarder. But give me time, I'll learn. LOL!!
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Jan 11, 2018 11:07:52 GMT -5
You're not a seed hoarder! Us seed hoarders never have enough! Laughing!!!! LOL!! Nope, I guess I'm not a seed hoarder. But give me time, I'll learn. LOL!! Oh my gosh! If you ever start, it's an addiction. You will be saving quart jars of seeds! You think the canning community are addicts, they got nothing on a seed hoarder!
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Jan 11, 2018 11:11:37 GMT -5
I have, I kid you not, a huge rubbermade container full of jars upon top of jars of seed. Some 10 years old and some I'll never grow again. It's the one thing I refused to give up when we moved into the RV. I put my foot down and said "nope, not giving up!"
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whistech
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Post by whistech on Jan 11, 2018 11:14:13 GMT -5
I don't mind the seeds when eating fresh tomatoes and I think the gel around the seeds has a wonderful flavor. For canning, I prefer tomatoes with as few seeds as possible.
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Post by paulf on Jan 11, 2018 11:17:39 GMT -5
I like meaty tomatoes and I don't really care if I only get 20-40 seeds. That's plenty for me. I save seeds on varieties that are difficult to find from my favorite sellers or on some of the accidental or on purpose crosses that occur in my garden. I used to save a lot of seeds but lately only the special ones. My eight or ten dollar orders may not be much but I still like to do my small bit at supporting the folks who have seed selling businesses.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jan 11, 2018 11:41:15 GMT -5
The seeds don't bother me, and it always seems that the best tasting tomatoes are the juiciest; though there was an occasional meaty variety that was very good, they still weren't on top in the taste tests. And I have never liked paste tomatoes. No sense even trying those in the taste tests!
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Post by ladymarmalade on Jan 11, 2018 12:28:03 GMT -5
I do save tomato seeds, so I prefer a nice supply of seeds in my tomatoes.
However, my criteria for tomato growing boils down to one thing, really. Taste. If it tastes good, I'll grow it over and over. If they tend to be stingy on the seeds, then I know I have to take more of the first fruits for seeds. German Red Strawberry tends to be light on the seed supply, but since it's one of my favorites, taste-wise, I forgive it and just squeeze an extra tomato when I need to replenish the seed stash.
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Post by spike on Jan 11, 2018 12:58:16 GMT -5
The only time I would really choose a meaty tomato is when I am having tomato sammichs! But I don't mind the seeds and there is really nothing better than a sloppy/juicy tomato sammich!
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poppopt
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Post by poppopt on Jan 11, 2018 14:42:49 GMT -5
Hope it's not too much of a thread drift to ask, but I am curious as to how you save your tomato seeds. Do you want the first ripe tomato? Do you wait for a very large or perfect specimen? Do you let it ripen longer on the vine than you would just to eat if you want it for seeds? Do you look at the overall plant when selecting the tomato you're going to collect seeds from? I know, it could be it's own thread, but since we're talking about tomato seeds... (I won't be offended if the post gets moved or a different thread started to talk about it. It just kinda came up with the conversation.)
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Jan 11, 2018 14:51:21 GMT -5
Here's what I did when I was growing for seed. Just what did, not the only way or best way necessarily. I chose fruits from my best plants that had the characteristics I was looking for. I chose the biggest and prettiest tomatoes from that plant. I wasn't really concerned which one ripened first, but I suppose that could be a deciding factor. I would squeeze the tomato seeds into a glass jar. Seeds, juice and all, adding a little water. I'd let them set on top of the fridge to ferment for a few days. In a few days mold will start to grow on top. Scoop off the mold and the seeds that didn't sink and dispose. Stir up good and wait, do this a few times, rinse the remaining seeds and spread on paper towels to dry. One of the reasons for letting it ferment is to break down the jell that surrounds the seeds. That jell coating helps keep the seed from germinating. this is an old, but reliable article and it's what I used when learning. davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/23
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poppopt
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Post by poppopt on Jan 11, 2018 15:08:41 GMT -5
Thanks! I never did do the soak in water and let 'em ferment thing but it's probably a better way than just letting them dry on a paper plate on top of the fridge like I used to do. Then again, I didn't care much if some of the seed didn't come up. A good bit of it did... in spite of my shoddy seed saving. But I'll try to improve this next time around, just because I can.
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Jan 11, 2018 15:24:02 GMT -5
poppoptThe fermentation is also said to help reduce seed born illnesses.
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Post by paulf on Jan 11, 2018 15:35:33 GMT -5
I find as close to perfect as I can and do the fermentation process. For me the best specimen comes early in the year. Not always the first but rarely the end of the year. The seeds get air dried and stored in 35mm film canisters or prescription pill containers and stored in the cool, dark basement.
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Post by tomike on Jan 11, 2018 15:55:56 GMT -5
My criteria for selecting a variety over another is based solely on taste and never on seed count. There are a few very good tasting hearts out there with very few seeds but also very good tasting beefsteak size tomatoes with plenty of seeds.... there you go....
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Post by ladymarmalade on Jan 11, 2018 16:56:59 GMT -5
Personally, I try and take the first few fruits from the plant for my seed saving, but that's for purity purposes. A lot of people bag their blossoms to keep the seed pure and eliminate the chance of a bee cross. (I don't bag for a number of reasons.) When I use one of the first fruits to ripen for their seeds, there's a much better chance that the tomato has not been the result of a bee spreading pollen, because it likely set fruit before the bees were really out for the season. It's not 100% foolproof, but so far it seems to work more in my favor than not.
Then I use the squeeze in a mason jar and ferment before drying on coffee filters. Once dry, fold up the coffee filter and tuck away until the end of the season, and then go through and package up all the seeds.
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Post by tomike on Jan 11, 2018 18:39:31 GMT -5
ladymarmalade has done this before and knows all (or most) of the tricks..... probably more than I.....
In my opinion, at least, in my climate, the first tomatoes of a variety are not the tastiest.....
But, these tomatoes have a high percentage chance of not having been the result of cross-pollination.....
The more reason for using the first tomatoes for seeds rather than a taste test with friends.....
I am very keen on bagging... but some plants or in some climatic conditions, when bagged, the blooms drop and Plan B becomes a must.....
Plan B, later in the season means keeping seeds from tomatoes that just might have been crossed and there is no way of knowing until next year...
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jan 12, 2018 0:13:01 GMT -5
For saving seeds, I usually wait until a little later, to find out which plants seem largest, most productive, and maybe the largest fruits, and compare the flavor, as well, though usually that doesn't vary much. Then I bag a few unopened blossoms on my favorite plant, to prevent that occasional cross pollination, and, fortunately, I have a lot of bees here. Then, when I see the blossoms open inside, I "buzz them", helping them pollinate, and get more seeds.
I do this more for peppers than for tomatoes! lol
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Post by paquebot on Jan 12, 2018 0:29:58 GMT -5
I would squeeze the tomato seeds into a glass jar. Seeds, juice and all, adding a little water. I'd let them set on top of the fridge to ferment for a few days. In a few days mold will start to grow on top. Scoop off the mold and the seeds that didn't sink and dispose. Stir up good and wait, do this a few times, rinse the remaining seeds and spread on paper towels to dry. That stuff that forms on top is yeast, not mold. Yeast ferments, mold rots. I definitely don't like doing it anywhere in the house. Only advised if you have an olfactory problem and can't smell anything. As for choice of few or many seeds, sweetest cherry tomatoes are usually those filled with seeds. That should tell where the sugar is. That's why most true paste types are bland. They are just a base for the spices in sauce. My tomato seeds also in glass. I use 1½-ounce jars, from Fillmore Container, 144 in a case. No count of exactly how many but I do list about 800 varieties with SSE. Some aren't listed and some special projects are in multiple jars. So far I have not found how old they have to be before germination falls off. Started some from 2004 and 2005 last year with no problem. Martin The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by paquebot on Jan 12, 2018 0:36:18 GMT -5
ladymarmalade, be careful using the first fruit from a plant. Often the first blossoms are what are called "daisy" as they are open like a daisy. They will easily cross as their UV pattern will attract unwanted pollinators. Martin The truth is more important than the facts.
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aqua
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Post by aqua on Jan 12, 2018 9:38:51 GMT -5
I ferment in an older glass jar. Otherwise, seed amount doesn't matter to me, I am not picky. I eat everything.
Except the less seedier/gellier ones do better for drying in the dehydrator.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jan 12, 2018 10:29:20 GMT -5
Back to seed saving, I used to ferment my tomato seeds, until Paddymc at the Tomato Depot board posted about his Oxi-Clean method: tomatodepot.proboards.com/thread/2455/learn; his post is about halfway down page 1 of the thread. Here is the method, in case you don't want to register at Tomato Depot (I haven't been active on that forum in a while; I don't remember whether you have to register just to see posts): I've had the same great germination results with this method. I only save a few batches of tomato seed a year, so this works for me. The Oxi-Clean could get expensive if you save dozens of varieties a year, though. Also the timing is fairly important, so it's tricky to multi-task with a lot of different batches at the same time - it's all too easy to leave some in the Oxi-Clean for too long while you're rinsing and drying others. Also, don't skip or skimp on the stirring steps; they are important for breaking up the gel so that you get the seeds cleaned properly.
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Post by september on Jan 12, 2018 10:58:26 GMT -5
I use fermentation if I do a larger batch, but most often I just save a few seeds from my cutting board from an exceptional tasting tomato. Then I use the oxiclean method, but just a tiny bit of powder in enough water to just cover the seeds in a small cup. I try to remember to rinse them in 20-30 minutes (set the kitchen timer!) rubbing them in a small sieve I keep for that purpose. I dry them in labeled and dated flat cone coffee filters, just tossed on a shelf until I'm ready to re-package them into mini ziplocks or coin envelopes later in the winter.
I may end up with 4 or 5 small batches of seeds saved for one variety. I don't mix together my dated batches of seeds for a variety, that way if something turns out to be crossed, I can use a different batch next time.
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Jan 12, 2018 11:43:50 GMT -5
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Post by paquebot on Jan 12, 2018 15:09:36 GMT -5
Old way also works yet. Squeeze seeds onto a piece of paper and spread them out. Allow to dry and then fold the paper a few times and write what they are. When time to plant, scrape off what's needed.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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