Preparing and Saving Seeds

[tryno12]

What is the best method(s) for preparing and saving seeds?

Thanks

[Cole_Robbie]

The best method is the one that works for you. I think most people on here ferment their seeds. I don't; I use OxyClean to remove the gel off the seeds.

[Father'sDaughter]

If you're asking strictly about tomato seeds, a good starting point for fermentation, written by a Tomatoville member, is here -- http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Category:Seed_Saving

I say starting point because I think a lot of us tweak steps along the way to make the process easiest for each of our situations.

Yeah, most people ferment them. It's the standard way.

I remove the gel sacks and then zap them with a Z4EX (with copper pipes) in a wide mouth glass jar filled a couple inches or so with water. The zapping is an experimental precaution against disease.

Some people use a blender to remove gel sacks (I've tried that and it generally works decently, but you have to wash a blender afterward and you lose seeds for some varieties, like Cherokee Green Pear). I just rub the gel sacks off with my thumb on a strainer with water washing over the seeds (which takes practice to do well, but it can be done well). Zapping also helps wear away the gel sacks if I miss some. Plus, I can still eat the tomato.

After zapping, I just dry them (on and in brown paper lunch bags, in a room with a box fan on high), these days, but it may be better to inoculate them with harmless and/or beneficial microbes, before drying, seeing as in theory, zapping should be able to kill just about all microbes, and if there are no microbes, then there's nothing for environmental microbes to compete with (and if you don't inoculate them, they may get naturally inoculated with random environmental microbes, granted, they're most likely not a problem for seeds, as long as they dry in a timely fashion—I haven't had issues here with seeds set out to dry).

The inoculation idea would probably be more pertinent for big things like potatoes, garlic and such. It's probably a non-issue for tiny seeds. I'm experimenting with zapping garlic. It seems that unlike seeds, garlic bulbs and bulblets need to be dormant for a few months after zapping. It doesn't seem like they grow easily directly afterward. Seeds, however, can be planted right away with no ill effects (or stored, if you so choose). I'd really like to experiment with potatoes to see if this method removes diseases from diseased potatoes. I do have seeds from diseased tomatoes that I've zapped and am growing, though, to see how well the zapping works for that disease.

I zap all my seeds that people give me or that I receive from trades, now (right before planting). Empty tea bags are useful to separate seeds so I can zap up to fifteen kinds at once (and then just set them out to dry in the tea bags on top of brown paper bags, in a room with a box fan on high to help them dry out).

I zap them for 15 minutes per each of the three frequencies, with no breaks. However, the standard zapper usage recommendation is pretty different. Zappers are alternative health devices that people use on themselves for various reasons (I'm the only one I know who uses them on seeds).

Zapping does not seem to hurt germination of seeds at all. Seeds I've saved and zapped myself have done at least as well as store bought seeds (they germinate faster on average, too). I think that has more to do with the fact that they're my own saved seeds than because I zapped them, but the zapping doesn't hurt.