Seed Fermenting Bottle Questions

[AlittleSalt]

Recently, two of the nearby lakes that provide our drinking water filled up after years of drought and low water levels. That means the water company/suppliers are having to add more water treatment chemicals or whatever they use. The water smells and tastes like chlorine bleach.



Yesterday, we bought a case of drinking water. It made me think of something to do with the water bottles after drinking the water, "Why not use those bottles to ferment seeds in?" I had already planned on saving seeds to pay foreword. Last year, at this time, I had a few tomato plants I bought as transplants. I joined Tomatoville, learned about saving seeds, and you all have sent me over 100 varieties of tomato seeds. This year, I want to repay the favor.

So, when using the 20 oz. water bottles to save seeds, would it be better to use the bottle as it is, or would it be better to cut off the top? I'm thinking that leaving the bottles as they are might not provide enough air to ferment correctly?

The other question is about water bottle color. I have 28 bottles that are clear (Sam's Choice) and 10 or so that are blue (DEJABLUE). Would using the blue bottles cause any problems with fermentation?

[KarenO]

They should work fine , and the colour shouldn't matter. I would keep them as is, not cutting them. se if you can save the tops too
KO

[Gardeneer]

His Salt,

You can use it without cutting off. color don't make any difference.
But leave it open without cap. Since the bacterial to ferment it comes from the air and probably need air to multiply.
I use very small canning jars and use paper towel in place of sealing ring. So this prevents the fruit flies from getting in it.

Gardeneer.

[carolyn137]

I'm thinking that leaving the bottles as they are might not provide enough air to ferment correctly?

&&&&&

Fermentation is an anaerobic process.

But I would cut the tops off for the following reason.

When you first put the tomato guts in the container for fermentation, there's lots of oxygen there and so what you get is respiration instead of fermentation. Then you get the mat that forms on the top of the glop, due to just fungi and bacteria in the air, and that mat helps initiate fermention.

And, I'll keep this short, there are several different kinds of fermention that have different end products.

I monitor fermentation by looking for gas bubbles on the inner side of a container and that's one reason I always used one pint clear plastic ones.

Sure, some adult flies will commit suicide in the glop or on the mat, and others will lay eggs that give rise to maggots. After you've done the several rinses so all you have left are seeds on the bottom and then dump them out on a PAPER plate, spread out the seeds so they will dry more easily, and drag the squirming maggots out of the water to where it's dry and if you have a diabolical kind of mind, you can watch them die.

Carolyn

[AlittleSalt]

Thank you everyone. Guys, there may be a few missing or misspelled words in my reply.

Karen, I agree that the water bottles should work fine. Thank you for replying. It makes me feel good to read your replies.

Gardeneer, I'm going to learn about the color thing. I'll make a post if there are any differences between blue or clear. I also used small canning jars and picante sauce jars to save seeds for the 2014/15 MMMM.

Dr. Carolyn Male, I am going to follow your advice. Living things need air...even muck, glop, and others.

I wish that Tomatoville had been around 30+ years ago.

[Tracydr]

Great idea Robert! In fact, I may start saving the water bottles I buy,too.
Too bade I didn't save the ones from my trip here last summer. I think I drank about 20 bottles a day or more for 5 days!
Drove everyone crazy that I had to stop frequently but I had my horse trailer so was able to pull over quickly and use my own toilet,which is much nicer than most gas stations!

[Father'sDaughter]

If you develop a heavy mold mat, I think it'll be more difficult to get rid of it if you don't cut the tops off the bottle. I use small canning jars for my fermentation and am able to easily lift off and discard the mat before I start the washing process.

As for water, we get our water from town wells and they also go heavy on the chlorine during any wet periods (rainy stretches, heavy snow melt, etc). We put a two stage filter system in the basement on the cold water line that supplies the kitchen faucet and the ice making in the fridge. We now save the occasional water bottle we buy when out and about and wash and re-fill them. They're good for a few weeks or more.

[AlittleSalt]

I freeze water bottles overnight - to thaw a little and drink the next day. 32F or 0C water tastes good.

[Gardeneer]

You can even germinate in them.
But have to close the cap.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

Thank you everyone. Guys, there may be a few missing or misspelled words in my reply.

Karen, I agree that the water bottles should work fine. Thank you for replying. It makes me feel good to read your replies.

Gardeneer, I'm going to learn about the color thing. I'll make a post if there are any differences between blue or clear. I also used small canning jars and picante sauce jars to save seeds for the 2014/15 MMMM.

Dr. Carolyn Male, I am going to follow your advice. Living things need air...even muck, glop, and others.

I wish that Tomatoville had been around 30+ years ago.

Yes, living things need air, for sure, but when it comes to fermentation of tomatoes, you do not want it, so the respiration that occurs initially gets RID of that oxygen, which is good, b/c only then can the anaerobic fermentation occur,

Since I've been online since the early 80's I've signed off every post, everywhere I was at different sites, as Carolyn. Yes, Dr. Carolyn was how I was known when I was teaching and doing research, but that was my professional life.

My private life was not as Dr. Carolyn, so I hope in the future that you and others would please refer to me as Carolyn.

Carolyn

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

You can even germinate in them.
But have to close the cap.

What a visual I have right now.

I don't know if Salt is interested in germinating in a bottle, closed cap and all, but according to synonyms for germinate I might think about it in terms of becoming a more advanced, growing in mind kind of experience.

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q...evid=352416750

Carolyn, who has lost weight recently, and that's good, but doesn't want to push it too far.

[ABlindHog]

I agree with everything Carolyn said about fermentation, but I like to exclude the flies and their progeny with a little cheese cloth.

[bower]

I'm addicted to pudding cups for fermenting seeds - about the right size for my scale - and a good excuse to buy myself pudding.
Another use for empty water bottles, Salt, is to fill them with the tap water and lay them on the ground around your plants in early spring... I do that here to keep them warm but then I leave the bottles all season, as a sort of mulch. Which I guess continues to moderate the soil temperature. I have no idea how useful that might be in a hot climate like yours, but maybe worthy of experiments. One great thing about having water bottles around, at times we lost power and had no running water for the plants, I had a reservoir of water on hand to keep them from dying of drought. Just a thought.

[Salsacharley]

The way I ferment seeds would make using drinking bottles with tops on them impossible to remove the seeds from. I rinse the seeds multiple times in the 1/2 pt canning jars I use to ferment them and after the last rinse I have the wet seeds in the bottom of the jar. I scoop out the wet seeds with my finger, and put them on an unbleached coffee filter to dry. They stick to the bottom and sides of the jar so I have to scoop them. How do you get the fermented seeds out of the drinking bottle?

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by Salsacharley

The way I ferment seeds would make using drinking bottles with tops on them impossible to remove the seeds from. I rinse the seeds multiple times in the 1/2 pt canning jars I use to ferment them and after the last rinse I have the wet seeds in the bottom of the jar. I scoop out the wet seeds with my finger, and put them on an unbleached coffee filter to dry. They stick to the bottom and sides of the jar so I have to scoop them. How do you get the fermented seeds out of the drinking bottle?

Invest in a mini mesh strainer. When you're finished washing, fill the jar one last time, give it a good swirl, then pour it out through the strainer. Once all your seeds are in the strainer, just turn it upside down and tap it on the coffee filter. As an added step, I blot the bottom of the strainer with paper towel to get rid of some of the water.