Brown seeds in a fresh tomato

[clara]

I had a lot of fruits (from healthy plants, NOT damaged fruits, not even the smallest cracking) that showed brown seeds inside when cut open. Sometimes about half of the seeds were brown, some brown-beige speckled/dotted. Those seeds survived the fermentation like the ordinary ones. Now that the heat is gone since a few weeks, the fruits show less brown seeds, but there are still some. The varieties that were the most prone to brown seeds were saladettes, much less the cherries; my biggies were not ripe yet during the heat waves and when cut open now, they have very few to none although they were on the vine during the hot weather.

I haven't made a germination test with the brown seeds yet, am too busy with the masses of fruits that are ripening now.

It may be due to our unusual hot weather this year with several extreme heat waves, but perhaps there is still another explanation. If so, I'd be happy to know.

PS: All my plants are grown outside.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by clara

I had a lot of fruits (from healthy plants, NOT damaged fruits, not even the smallest cracking) that showed brown seeds inside when cut open. Sometimes about half of the seeds were brown, some brown-beige speckled/dotted. Those seeds survived the fermentation like the ordinary ones. Now that the heat is gone since a few weeks, the fruits show less brown seeds, but there are still some. The varieties that were the most prone to brown seeds were saladettes, much less the cherries; my biggies were not ripe yet during the heat waves and when cut open now, they have very few to none although they were on the vine during the hot weather.

I haven't made a germination test with the brown seeds yet, am too busy with the masses of fruits that are ripening now.

It may be due to our unusual hot weather this year with several extreme heat waves, but perhaps there is still another explanation. If so, I'd be happy to know.

PS: All my plants are grown outside.

Clara, I'm just seeing your post now and all I can think of is internal BER where the fruits run out of Ca++ involved with BER inside the fruits before the deficiency is ever seen at the blossom end where the typical BER lesion is usually found.

When I've found internal BER the seeds are almost always a blackish brown, best way I can describe them, and yes, I do think that the hot weather your mentioned might be at fault.Hot weather is a stress and yes, such stresses are known to influence Ca++ uptake and distribution in a plant.

And I never even tried to process those dark seeds bc in the past I'd accidentally let some fermentations run dry and you get the same dark seeds and when I tested them there was little to no germination.

With internal BER, I have some links bc I fetched them for someone else but don't know if I saved them, there are NO external BER symptoms at all.

Hope that might help,

Carolyn

[clara]

Many thanks, Carolyn! Internal BER - I'm always learning something new!

BTW, a tomato friend of mine who has also had a lot of those brown-black seeds, has already made a germination test with them - there was a germination rate of about 30%. That means when I have a lot of "normal" seeds, I'll eliminate them, but if it's a rare variety and I only have few seeds, I'll keep them. My tomato friend told me that those unusual seeds produced healthy plants with no signs of any disease the next season - good to know!

[charline]

that is very interesting and good to know, thanks