Viable Seed?

Starlight · June 17, 2015

We just got power back and of course first thing after unreal storms and wind we had was to check garden. It's a mess. New shade structure I was almost done building from PVC pipe in totally flattened and so are my plants.

The storm came out of no where and in a half hour we got enough rain to fill a cereal bowl. The wind was so bad I have to check and make sure part of my roof didn't come loose, but the worst is I have some tomatoes that got ripped off the vine.

They are green, no sign of blush at all. If I bring them inside and put on the counter, will they still ripen if they that hard and green and also, which is my main question, since there is no blush, if they should ripen, would the seed be viable or not?

Wondering whether I can save these guys for viable seed or if I should just get out a frying pan and make a batch of cornbread and fried green tomatoes.

Stvrob · June 17, 2015

Probably not, but if they were just about to blush they might ripen up in a paperbag. Throw a banana in with it to boost the ethylene conentration.

Bipetual · June 18, 2015

Sorry to hear your plants got damaged. Maybe cook some, and try to ripen some. I don't know about seed viability, though.

Darren Abbey · June 18, 2015

The plant will try to get the seeds to develop enough, even when all that remains of the plant is the fruit. If they start to blush, then the seeds are mature enough. With this in mind, don't do any tricks (bananna in bag) to hurry it along as that will bypass the normal seed development in favor of 'ripeness' of the fruit.

PhilaGardener · June 18, 2015

Sorry to hear about all the damage from that storm - you are not alone. I hope you can rebuild and recover quickly!

retiree · June 18, 2015

I can tell you what I experienced . One year I had a plant that was very late which if the season was long enough would have had large tomatoes. It had one small green tomato on it when the weather turned bad, so I brought it in the house and it sat for months and eventually turned kind of an orangey colour. I cut it open and the seeds were so small that they didn't even look like seeds but I planted one and it resulted in a beautiful plant.
I was amazed.
Neil G. (in Canada)

AlittleSalt · June 18, 2015

Star,

Ripen the tomatoes however you see fit. Put the seeds in a jar to ferment along with 1 cup of water. Let the jar and seeds sit for 3-7 days. You can leave the jar uncovered, or put a coffee filter over the top. It does need some air to ferment correctly. The seeds that are good will sink to the bottom. The seeds that float are not viable - throw those away. There may be a bacterial mat that forms on the top - it stinks.

The way I get rid of the floating bacterial mat and bad seeds is to turn on a faucet "Very" slowly and float them out of the jar and down the drain.

Pour the water and seeds on the bottom into a hand sieve and wash it until there's nothing left but seeds. Put those seeds on a foam/glass plate and let them dry for around 15 days. Separating the seeds is much easier to do while they are still wet. You can plant the seeds anytime you want, but if you are saving them for growing/trading later - let them dry completely before putting them in seed bag.

I read your thread as you being concerned about saving viable seeds.

As your friend, I'm sorry to read about the storm damage. I know you are one to get back on that horse. That's why I responded about saving viable seeds first.

Wi-sunflower · June 18, 2015

Are the green tomatoes dark green or almost a white waxy looking color ?? If waxy white they were within 10 days of "turning" and the seeds MAY be good enough. Or at least a few of them may be.

Carol

Starlight · June 19, 2015

Thanks for the information everybody. I really appreciate it.

With all this crazy weather and conditions, who knows if I will get more tomatoes to grow, so it was really important to me to save seed from the first ones.

While no sign of blush, I went and checked and a lot of them seem to have a least a somewhat whitish color to them. They are not matte ( learned a new tomato word

at least .

If I had bad seed for me, I don't care, but I sure don't want to send anybody not viable seed if I can help it , especially since some will be shared with folks who will share them with friends too.

That is one thing about gardeners. We may not like what Mother Nature throws at us and we may have fits and moan, but we do get right back up and go back out there and do it again and again and again.

It's always nice to have other ears and shoulders to lean on and other experiences to learn from.

**carolyn137** · June 21, 2015

If I had bad seed for me, I don't care, but I sure don't want to send anybody not viable seed if I can help it , especially since some will be shared with folks who will share them with friends too.

%%%%%

Since some of the answers were iffy, that it is not a sure thing, it might be best if you do germination tests before you share the seeds with anyone.

Carolyn

ginger2778 · June 21, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by carolyn137

If I had bad seed for me, I don't care, but I sure don't want to send anybody not viable seed if I can help it , especially since some will be shared with folks who will share them with friends too.

%%%%%

Since some of the answers were iffy, that it is not a sure thing, it might be best if you do germination tests before you share the seeds with anyone.

Carolyn

Agreed! I was also thinking that.

Starlight · June 21, 2015

Yes, I surely will. : )

AlittleSalt · June 21, 2015

I also worry about sending seeds that won't grow.

Starlight · June 22, 2015

I think most people do. You ferment, you store properly, you do germ tests and still you hope that recipients of your seeds have good luck.

I had tomatoes that I had to pick last year with a bad frost coming and they had quite a bit of blush of them and I let them ripen inside and did germ test on them, and they were viable, no problem, but as green as these were, with no blush, it never hurts to ask when your not sure.

**carolyn137** · June 22, 2015

For several decades I've been doing annual seed offers and at first all the varieties I offered were from my own saved seeds which I knew were viable, not b'c I could ever test for viability for all of them, but b'c at the time I was listing several hundreds of varieties in The SSE Yearbooks and would get feedback if something was not right. But also at that time most of the SSE members were very savvy about germinaing seeds.

That all changed when I severed all 4 quads in my right leg in Dec of 2004 and from then on I vowed to get seeds for varieties that would be new to all or most.

But at message sites as these there are lots of folks who are new to processing seeds, etc., and that's when I started seeing problems happening, and that b'c I was now here at Tville and I offered seeds that I had gotten from many sources and also put up a germination thread since I didn't want to continue offering varieties where there were problems, as reported back for single varieties, by many.

Take variety A, one person would get 100% germination while another might get 0 germination. I kept track of all those results.

The persons with the lowest germinations were those who used wet filter papers in a baggie and ended up with lovely mold growth. DE wasn't that much better, then those who used those kits with domes and cooked the seeds.

Summary?

A person can check germination of seeds and they may be just fine but that doesn't always translate to what others might get depending on how experienced they are with seeds, what methods they used, etc.

If you go back and look at some of those past germination threads you'll see the frustration on the part of those who were having problems and you'll see that I then asked them how they were germinating seeds and tried my best to help them understand what might have gone wrong.

Carolyn

June 17, 2015	#1
Starlight Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: AL Posts: 1,993	Viable Seed? We just got power back and of course first thing after unreal storms and wind we had was to check garden. It's a mess. New shade structure I was almost done building from PVC pipe in totally flattened and so are my plants. The storm came out of no where and in a half hour we got enough rain to fill a cereal bowl. The wind was so bad I have to check and make sure part of my roof didn't come loose, but the worst is I have some tomatoes that got ripped off the vine. They are green, no sign of blush at all. If I bring them inside and put on the counter, will they still ripen if they that hard and green and also, which is my main question, since there is no blush, if they should ripen, would the seed be viable or not? Wondering whether I can save these guys for viable seed or if I should just get out a frying pan and make a batch of cornbread and fried green tomatoes.

June 18, 2015	#4
Darren Abbey Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Minnesota Posts: 586	The plant will try to get the seeds to develop enough, even when all that remains of the plant is the fruit. If they start to blush, then the seeds are mature enough. With this in mind, don't do any tricks (bananna in bag) to hurry it along as that will bypass the normal seed development in favor of 'ripeness' of the fruit. __________________ http://the-biologist-is-in.blogspot.com

June 21, 2015	#10
carolyn137 Moderator Emeritus Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Upstate NY, zone 4b/5a Posts: 21,169	If I had bad seed for me, I don't care, but I sure don't want to send anybody not viable seed if I can help it , especially since some will be shared with folks who will share them with friends too. %%%%% Since some of the answers were iffy, that it is not a sure thing, it might be best if you do germination tests before you share the seeds with anyone. Carolyn __________________ Carolyn

June 22, 2015	#15
carolyn137 Moderator Emeritus Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Upstate NY, zone 4b/5a Posts: 21,169	For several decades I've been doing annual seed offers and at first all the varieties I offered were from my own saved seeds which I knew were viable, not b'c I could ever test for viability for all of them, but b'c at the time I was listing several hundreds of varieties in The SSE Yearbooks and would get feedback if something was not right. But also at that time most of the SSE members were very savvy about germinaing seeds. That all changed when I severed all 4 quads in my right leg in Dec of 2004 and from then on I vowed to get seeds for varieties that would be new to all or most. But at message sites as these there are lots of folks who are new to processing seeds, etc., and that's when I started seeing problems happening, and that b'c I was now here at Tville and I offered seeds that I had gotten from many sources and also put up a germination thread since I didn't want to continue offering varieties where there were problems, as reported back for single varieties, by many. Take variety A, one person would get 100% germination while another might get 0 germination. I kept track of all those results. The persons with the lowest germinations were those who used wet filter papers in a baggie and ended up with lovely mold growth. DE wasn't that much better, then those who used those kits with domes and cooked the seeds. Summary? A person can check germination of seeds and they may be just fine but that doesn't always translate to what others might get depending on how experienced they are with seeds, what methods they used, etc. If you go back and look at some of those past germination threads you'll see the frustration on the part of those who were having problems and you'll see that I then asked them how they were germinating seeds and tried my best to help them understand what might have gone wrong. Carolyn __________________ Carolyn

June 17, 2015	#2
Stvrob Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: Jacksonville, FL Posts: 1,413	Probably not, but if they were just about to blush they might ripen up in a paperbag. Throw a banana in with it to boost the ethylene conentration.

June 18, 2015	#3
Bipetual Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Illinois, zone 5a Posts: 579	Sorry to hear your plants got damaged. Maybe cook some, and try to ripen some. I don't know about seed viability, though.

June 18, 2015	#5
PhilaGardener Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Near Philadelphia, PA Posts: 1,940	Sorry to hear about all the damage from that storm - you are not alone. I hope you can rebuild and recover quickly!

June 18, 2015	#6
retiree Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2006 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 404	I can tell you what I experienced . One year I had a plant that was very late which if the season was long enough would have had large tomatoes. It had one small green tomato on it when the weather turned bad, so I brought it in the house and it sat for months and eventually turned kind of an orangey colour. I cut it open and the seeds were so small that they didn't even look like seeds but I planted one and it resulted in a beautiful plant. I was amazed. Neil G. (in Canada)

June 18, 2015	#7
AlittleSalt BANNED FOR LIFE Join Date: May 2014 Posts: 13,333	Star, Ripen the tomatoes however you see fit. Put the seeds in a jar to ferment along with 1 cup of water. Let the jar and seeds sit for 3-7 days. You can leave the jar uncovered, or put a coffee filter over the top. It does need some air to ferment correctly. The seeds that are good will sink to the bottom. The seeds that float are not viable - throw those away. There may be a bacterial mat that forms on the top - it stinks. The way I get rid of the floating bacterial mat and bad seeds is to turn on a faucet "Very" slowly and float them out of the jar and down the drain. Pour the water and seeds on the bottom into a hand sieve and wash it until there's nothing left but seeds. Put those seeds on a foam/glass plate and let them dry for around 15 days. Separating the seeds is much easier to do while they are still wet. You can plant the seeds anytime you want, but if you are saving them for growing/trading later - let them dry completely before putting them in seed bag. I read your thread as you being concerned about saving viable seeds. As your friend, I'm sorry to read about the storm damage. I know you are one to get back on that horse. That's why I responded about saving viable seeds first.

June 18, 2015	#8
Wi-sunflower Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 2,591	Are the green tomatoes dark green or almost a white waxy looking color ?? If waxy white they were within 10 days of "turning" and the seeds MAY be good enough. Or at least a few of them may be. Carol

June 19, 2015	#9
Starlight Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: AL Posts: 1,993	Thanks for the information everybody. I really appreciate it. With all this crazy weather and conditions, who knows if I will get more tomatoes to grow, so it was really important to me to save seed from the first ones. While no sign of blush, I went and checked and a lot of them seem to have a least a somewhat whitish color to them. They are not matte ( learned a new tomato word at least . If I had bad seed for me, I don't care, but I sure don't want to send anybody not viable seed if I can help it , especially since some will be shared with folks who will share them with friends too. That is one thing about gardeners. We may not like what Mother Nature throws at us and we may have fits and moan, but we do get right back up and go back out there and do it again and again and again. It's always nice to have other ears and shoulders to lean on and other experiences to learn from.