Saving tomato seed ? Advice please.

ampersand

Against brick housefront, the tomatoes are still in life. As others have noted, flowers and stems started coming again at odd junctures, despite lateral pinching and tops being nipped after trusses set.

Colour is slowly coming to mine(planted late)and I'm leaving them on the vine as long as sun finds them for much of morning and afternoon, even as it declines.

I'd like to save seed from the old French rarities but will this be possible if they don't completely/naturally ripen, either on the vine or in brown paper bag etc?

The delightful Pip Book doesn't cover tomatoes.

adouglasmhor

possible but better if you can ripen them, brown paper bag is fine, remember Tomato seeds need to be washed before you use them, they have a coating of saponins which prevents them growing otherwise.

ampersand

adouglasmhor wrote: »

possible but better if you can ripen them, brown paper bag is fine, remember Tomato seeds need to be washed before you use them, they have a coating of saponins which prevents them growing otherwise.

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Thanks for this - interesting. I imagine there's a time/condition trigger which causes the growth inhibiting factor to cease when Nature wants the seeds to germinate.

adouglasmhor

Heavy rain and soil abrasion, passing through the digestive tract of animals and birds, they are tough seeds I have seen Plum tomatoes grown from seeds from cans of cooked peeled tomatoes. You also get plants near sewage work outlets (and fig trees too) that have grown from seeds that have been through someone, then sewage treatement and finaly washed up on a river bank.

CCCele

I usually go through the process of washing and drying tomato seeds. However, this year, my most productive plants were ones that grew "wild" from last year's over-ripe tomatoes that were thrown at the composter and missed and germinated themselves.

Jayar

CCCele wrote: »

I usually go through the process of washing and drying tomato seeds. However, this year, my most productive plants were ones that grew "wild" from last year's over-ripe tomatoes that were thrown at the composter and missed and germinated themselves.

That's my kind of gardening, Great :j

ampersand

Sewage tomatoes I do know, but not figs! And(beginning a sentence with a preposition for devilment)having plum toms from germinating canned seeds is even more extraordinary.
Yes, some odd toms are coming up even now alongside compost and from under shed!
Thankyou all.

stiffen

i put all my garden waste in my worm bins at the end of the season and then spread all the muck on my plot in spring, come germination time in the summer hundreds of tom plants.easy.

cjb02

I have just started buying seeds from an online dealer called realseeds. They are based in Wales and it is run by a nice couple who try and get customers to save seeds from their own plants. They have a really good ethos on the type of seeds they sell too/

They have seed saving instructions on their website, below is a direct link

http://www.realseeds.co.uk/seedsavinginstructions.doc

Might be of help.