Immersion Cooker Recommendations

[Cole_Robbie]

I plan to buy an immersion cooker, to use for a hot water bath to sterilize seeds. I will probably get the stick style that hangs over the edge of the pot of water.

Everything I see on Amazon is a cheap brand name thatI don't know. If anyone owns one of these devices, I would be grateful to hear your reviews of it.

[Father'sDaughter]

If your looking at Sous Vide cookers, Anova and the Chef Step's Joule are the two models recommended by most of us home cooks who own one. I personally chose the Anova as the Joule had not been release yet.

[tivia]

I also have the Anova and haven't had any problems with it. I mostly use it as a water bath for making small batches of beer (heating the mash to an exact temperature is a key component to success, and it works fantastically for that.) I've tried a few sous vide recipes, but I guess I'm not on the cutting edge of molecular gastronomy to really take advantage of that aspect.

Marie

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by tivia

I mostly use it as a water bath for making small batches of beer (heating the mash to an exact temperature is a key component to success, and it works fantastically for that.)

Marie

I hadn't thought of using it for brewing. Thanks for sharing that idea!

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

I plan to buy an immersion cooker, to use for a hot water bath to sterilize seeds. I will probably get the stick style that hangs over the edge of the pot of water.

Everything I see on Amazon is a cheap brand name thatI don't know. If anyone owns one of these devices, I would be grateful to hear your reviews of it.

I had most o fmy response done, but couldn't think of one person's name, went to fetch it and lost everythng.

There are several threads here at TV about hot water treatment of seeds,but I couldn't find them. There are several commercial companies that offer both hot water treated and non treated seeds for the same variety. So you have to know which diseases are most problematic for you since HWT is done only for certain bacterial pathogens and a few viruses that are found in the interior of the seed. Even if you can hold the required temp for the time it's supposed to be held there is a loss of seed viability.

More important for most are the pathogens that can be found on the exterior of the seed. The woman who did most of that research was at the Geneva NY USDA station when I knew her. She had received grants from both Campbell and Heinz to find the best way to get the pathogens off the exterior, or most of them,since treatment is quantitative, meaning that a certain # of bad guys have to be left on the foliage, in order to initiate infection.

After Googling a bit and tapping my head I remembered who she is.Her name is Dr. Helene Dillard,she went from Geneva to Cornell in Ithaca and that's where I thought I'd find her, but no..she's now Dean at UCDavis in C.

What a remarkable career.

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q...illard+cornell

So most home growers don't bother to even try HWT b/c of all the pitfalls,and also it doesn't remove many of the pathogens on the exterior, which can be bacterial,fungal and whatever.

Carolyn, now paying attention to the severe weather of awful T storms,hail about one inch and winds up to 60 mph. Me go to bed pull the covers over me head and silently sing songs.

[PhilaGardener]

Hope things are in OK shape after that weather passes you!

[Cole_Robbie]

Thanks, Carolyn. I also hope your storms blow over.

I already process my seeds with Oxy Clean, which converts to hydrogen peroxide upon contact with organic matter. I realize there is no research supporting the tomato disease killing effect of peroxide. But I am going to make the assumption that it has a similar effect as any other oxidizing agent, like TSP. I would be surprised to see anything live through being bubbled in peroxide for 30 minutes, but maybe something on the seed interior could live through it, thus the hot water bath would complete the process, or at least that is my thinking.

[Worth1]

My friend in Colorado sent me a text with a link to a rice cooker steamer he bought for work in Alaska.
I sent him a text back telling him that I saw that exact same model on YouTube explode.
It destroyed the kitchen and put fifty good men in the hospital.
His reply was,"Shut up".
Worth

[encore]

could'nt you just use a slow cooker and an electronic digital thermostat to keep it at the temp you need?

[Cole_Robbie]

It's much harder to keep a constant temperature without the immersion cooker, from what I understand at least. The range of temps that the hot water bath works without destroying the seed is narrow.

[oakley]

I have the Inova...5 yrs now. keeps perfect temp. (I've checked it with
My Thermopen)...
The mesh tea ball, the pinch handled one works well.
Check the YouTube video for exact method...might be the same Carolyn
Mentioned...
(I'm off-grid in the mountains at the moment...more later)

[carolyn137]

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q...t+tomato+seeds

Check out the Cornell link and many other links on the above page having to do with hot water treatment.

Carolyn

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

Thanks, Carolyn. I also hope your storms blow over.

I already process my seeds with Oxy Clean, which converts to hydrogen peroxide upon contact with organic matter. I realize there is no research supporting the tomato disease killing effect of peroxide. But I am going to make the assumption that it has a similar effect as any other oxidizing agent, like TSP. I would be surprised to see anything live through being bubbled in peroxide for 30 minutes, but maybe something on the seed interior could live through it, thus the hot water bath would complete the process, or at least that is my thinking.

Yes, the storm blew over and I'm still alive.

You are so right when you say that Oxi- clean has no research saying it can kill pathogens.And that's my major problem with it.

If it isn't known which pathogens are on the seed surface to start with,you have no idea of what has been removed with treatment.

I fetched a bunch of links but will post only a few.

http://tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=34109

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=9820

When Dr Helene Dillard did her experiments she did know what was on the seeds so after treatment she could test and know how effective it was.I just posted this a couple of days ago and brought up the concept of residual quantitative amounts which she shared with me.

Carolyn

[oakley]

Not sure i would consider the Tomatoville crowd the average backyard gardener,

Many market gardeners here, and with 100+ tomato plants even those of us growing for
home/family use is considered extreme by most. When i was growing just 15-20
varieties friends would raise a concerned eyebrow until they recieved the harvest gift.
Tasting parties, a Fall harvest tomato menu...

The big guns, big Ag, the massive greenhouse producers, use many method to curb
disease and pests. Using a scaled down method could be very beneficial using the heat
treatment in combination with another seed treatment be it bleach, TSP, etc.
Organic beneficials, synthetics.

A cheap hundred dollar SousVide circulator did not exist a few years ago so i think it
works great. The temps and times are easily found as well as the pre-heat.

I test constantly on heathy extra plants. I like to see it for myself. Misted with RoundUp,
over fertilized, sat a gallon pot in a five gallon bucket of water for a week and it drooped
like over-cooked noodles...just the new growth, then bounced back once removed to
dry out a bit. Even set one out to sunburn.

We are so out of balance globally on so many levels season-by-season, with my recent
tick troubles, and finding out it is a NEast problem this year following a 2016 field mice
explosion...we all suffer, especially the South, so any help is worth study to solve it.
Root knot, blight...

Affected seed where it did not exist in the past?, i will use all my guns to fix it. If need be.
(and makes a darn good brisket, pork shoulder/chops, tough cuts like flank, skirt, without
much effort)