Thursday, March 11, 2010

Meanwhile back in the Greenhouse



Last fall I was a first time tomato seed saver. Mema had me dig out all our Cherry tomato's after she tasted Sun Gold that a friend gave her. The skins are not tough in the slightest and they are very sweet to the taste. So before she ate the last couple of tomato's I sliced them open and carefully removed the seeds. The following is the process that worked for me, as you can see from the picture germination was very successful.
1. Slice the bottom of the tomato and carefully squeeze out the contents into a clean container.
2. I tagged the container with the name and date that I started the process.
3. I had to add a little water as there was very little juice.
4. In about three days I noticed a whitish scum forming on the top, that is the fermentation starting and without fermentation you will not have any success.
5. Once the scummy stuff forms you need to stir the mixture daily to start separating the seeds from the pulp.
6. Once the fermentation had been doing its thing and I had been doing my stirring thing for a couple of days, I filled the container almost to the top with fresh water.
7. I then set it on the counter and let the viable seeds fall to the bottom.
8. I then carefully poured off the water and the floaters as they are not viable.
9. Now I dumped the remaining seeds onto a dinner plate with a couple layers of newspaper on it and then placed the plate on top of the fridge for a couple of days to completely dry.
10. Once the seeds were dry I rubbed them between my fingers to separate them and then put them in an envelope.

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