can you eat tomatoes from diseased plants?

[zenthumbs]

Newbie question: I was just wondering if it is "safe" to eat the tomatoes from plants that are diseased. BER, obviously, I won't eat, but if it's confined to the leaves or stems, is it safe to eat?

Also, am I correct to assume that it's not recommended that the seeds be saved from these plants also? Thanks

[Timmah!]

Welcome to Tomatoville zenthumbs.
Tomatoes from afllicted plants have been fine to eat in my experience.

[TomatoDon]

Hi Zen, I noticed this is your first post, so welcome to Tomatoville! Hang around and you'll soon discover that the best tomato people in the world hang out here. Not only good with tomatoes, but good people!

You'll probably get a lot of good feedback on this. I'm sure all of us have plants with a bad leaf or stem and that's no problem. BUT...make sure you aren't seeing yellow leaves or anything obviously wrong that may have come from an accidental spray of herbicide...ie...drift from your neighbor using Roundup along the fence. This would be very obvious over the plant, but I thought it would be safer to mention it anyway.

There are a lot of good seed savers here that can help you. I've heard it both ways, depending on the circumstances, but you'll get much better answers on that than what I can offer. There should be some good ones here to cue you up on that.

Glad to have you aboard!

DS

[zenthumbs]

Thanks Timmah and TomatoDon for the welcome mat. I have to fess up that I've been lurking for a while and was surprised and delighted at the camaraderie on this forum. I see you guys with thousands of posts and was hoping you wouldn't notice that mine has only 1 pathetic post

I was asking the above question because I grow cherry tomatoes for my 5 year-old, who inhales them like candy (in fact, he prefers them to candy) and I wanted to make sure they're safe for him to eat.

[TomatoDon]

The safest rule of thumb for any food would probably be; when in doubt, don't.

Ah, you are fortunate to have a child with such a natural love for tomatoes. Remember that the time you spend doing this now will make memories your son will always have happy thoughts of. And if your focus is the cherry size, there are a LOT of good ones for you to experiment from. Sweet Million, SunGold, Black Cherry, and on and on.

Glad to have you aboard!

[carolyn137]

zen, the fungi and bacteria and viruses that can infect tomatoes are not able to infect humans or pets, etc., so nothing to worry about.

And BER is not an infectious disease, it's a physiological one so no worries there either. Some folks do cut out the BER part and eat the rest or use them for seeds but I'm one who doesn't eat BER fruits simply b'c for me they usually have an "off" taste.

[dustdevil]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

zen, the fungi and bacteria and viruses that can infect tomatoes are not able to infect humans or pets, etc., so nothing to worry about.

Not necessarily true. Ecoli is one exception and there are others...

[maf]

E. coli cannot infect tomatoes, surely? AFAIK the only way you could catch E.coli from a tomato is if it was smeared with infected excrement, and washing well would get rid of that.

[TomatoDon]

I can only assume that you aren't going to suggest, or expect, anyone to test that hypothesis.

[dustdevil]

I feel if you were to eat a partially rotten tomato you may ingest some unfriendly pathogens...bacterial, fungal, or ?

[dustdevil]

Originally Posted by maf

E. coli cannot infect tomatoes, surely? AFAIK the only way you could catch E.coli from a tomato is if it was smeared with infected excrement, and washing well would get rid of that.

If it is a carrier, then it is infected. Humanure comes to mind as a possible problem...especially if not fully composted.

What gardener has the equipment to check their toms for bacteria and fungi? A normal person wouldn't eat it if there is any doubt. And who has the ability to remove E.coli from a tom by "washing well"? It would take a microscopic inspection to determine if you got it all and the process would be "sterilization".

[maf]

Originally Posted by TomatoDon

I can only assume that you aren't going to suggest, or expect, anyone to test that hypothesis.

Well, that is true; when I am in a country where they fertilize the fields with human waste I tend to avoid eating raw vegetables. But it is well known that many people pick up these types of infections after eating salad while on holiday in countries such as Egypt, where they use that type of fertilizer, that is enough testing for me.

dustdevil,
As long as you don't actually eat the rotted part of the fruit, there is unlikely to be a problem. The point I was trying to make was that E. coli is spread by whatever is on the outside of the tomato, not by something that infects the tomato itself. A tomato that looks perfectly healthy and passes any quality inspection could still carry E. coli in a random speck of foreign matter on the epidermis, and that is nothing to do with any tomato disease.

[mjc]

Originally Posted by dustdevil

If it is a carrier, then it is infected. Humanure comes to mind as a possible problem...especially if not fully composted.

What gardener has the equipment to check their toms for bacteria and fungi? A normal person wouldn't eat it if there is any doubt. And who has the ability to remove E.coli from a tom by "washing well"? It would take a microscopic inspection to determine if you got it all and the process would be "sterilization".

Then you may as well NOT be growing any tomatoes...E. coli is one of, if not the top one, most common bacteria on the planet. It is everywhere. Only certain strains of it tend to be problematic.

And no, not quite on the 'carrier' bit...contaminated, maybe...carrier, no. It is not infecting the plant/tomato...it is on it.

And do you sterilize everything you eat...and then eat in a clean room?

Attitudes like yours are one of the reasons we have 'superbugs' in the first place. All bacteria are not bad and indiscriminate use of antibiotics, in an attempt to wipe everything out, are what created the superbugs. Sterilizing everything is not beneficial, to anyone.

And as far as a half rotten tomato goes, you'd be much more likely to get sick from various things like ketones, alcohols and other products of the rotting process than from bacteria or such.

[TomatoDon]

I'm going to take a wild guess that the Centers for Disease Control would find this thread problematic.

But to be a good sport, let's start a list. In Column A we can list the safe pathogens, fungi, bacteria, and ways that E Coli won't kill you, and in Column B we can list the deadly pathogens, fungi, bacteria, and the ways that E Coli will kill you. And every one pay attention. Do not get them mixed up.

Can we put a Hall of Fame sticky on this one?

DS

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by dustdevil

Not necessarily true. Ecoli is one exception and there are others...

If someone is adding non-composted manure to the soil then it's always possible that normal, non-toxigenic as well as toxigenic E.coli, and I could list many more such bacteria, could in some way get into splits at the stem end and elsewhere.

But bacteria can't get across the epidermis of the fruits.

I don't know of one disease site or any of my tomato pathology books that would consider E, Coli, Salmonella, Campylobater, Listeria or any number of pathogens that would be listed as primary tomato pathogens.

Yes, E coli has been shown to get incorporated vis the roots in lettuce and another crop I've forgetten right now, but I've not seen any data to show that human pathogtens are talken up via the roots of tomatoes.

I don't have the time to research that right now so if anyone else wants to please do. A few years back there was that large recall of tomatoes and hot peppers from TX or Mexico, but I think it was traced to accidental contamination of sliced tomatoes that were being sold commercially as sliced which is a different issue/ But again, the details escape me right now.

And if I don't hurry back to my tennis watching Simon might just win over Nalbandian so bye bye, I'm outta here now.