Tomatoes seeds question

Mon Mar 04, 2013 5:35 pm

Hi, everybody! I'm wondering if anybody can help me with the question about the seeds. I have bought the seeds for tomatoes, cucumbers and squashes in April of last year. I have growen plants from those seeds with great results last year. I have some of the original seeds left. I have kept them inside the house. I'm planning to use them this year soon. I kept them in the original small paper packs. Do you think, they will be still good for this year plants? Thank you. Very Happy

Mon Mar 04, 2013 5:50 pm

Yes they will be fine. All of those will last a while.

Some give life expectanices on seeds and there is some basis in it. But I have grown some old seed. The germination might not be as great but they still grow. Only being a year old there is no problem.

We are getting 30+ yr old tomato seeds to sprout so....................... :idea:

Good luck

Dono

Mon Mar 04, 2013 5:53 pm

Another thing to think about is saving your own seed. This way you can save seed from your strongest plant or the one with the sweetest fruit. They will also become acclimated to your climate. You can bet those seeds were not harvested in your town more like all the way across the country.

Plus you don't have to buy seed! :wink:

Mon Mar 04, 2013 6:05 pm

Thanks so much. That is great-I will grow Kumato tomatoes and other ones again. Last year I was looking for them all over the country and found them only in one place in North Carolina.
How do you do the seeds? Do you exctract them from the sweetest tomatoes and let them dry for a while? Do you put them on the paper towel or smth? How have you done yourself? I was thinking to do it last year but didn't do it. My fault. Will do it this year.

Mon Mar 04, 2013 6:05 pm

In my opinion, you have the right answer to your immediate question.

If you are still saving that seed in 2014, it may still be okay. An example: Onion seed has a reputation for going bad quickly. I'm not so sure. With 3 packets left over: 3 year old seed tested last year was 100% and I went ahead and used it successfully. Two packets left in 2013 so it was 4 year old seed tested this year was 100% for 1 variety and about 60% for the other.

An arid environment and a cool storage location in my basement may give me an edge for seed viability. I don't know but I often buy seed in large packets. The following list seems quite conservative to me:

Life Expectancy of Vegetable Seeds, Iowa State U

Steve

Mon Mar 04, 2013 6:14 pm

Thanks so much, for the link, Steve. I really appreciate it. Then I will just add more varieties but will use the last year seeds too.
Vlad

Mon Mar 04, 2013 6:46 pm

Veggiefan, differant fruits/veggie seeds are saved differantly. When you are ready ask again here or just Google what you are trying to save. It is very easy though.

Tomatoes are usually femented, which removes an anti germinating compound (so the seeds don't sprout in the fruit) found on the seeds shell. Basically you sqeeze out the seeds a little gel and a little pulp put it in a glass wiht a bit of water and cover to keep buggies out. Let it sit for about 3 day's when there is a scum on top you rinse the seeds and let them dry very well I like to go at least 2 weeks.

DO NOT EVER store undry seeds.

Tue Mar 05, 2013 7:21 am

Thanks so much. I appreciate it. I will use your recommendations this year for keeping the seeds for sure.

Tue Mar 05, 2013 11:00 am

This year I bought my seeds in bulk for the first time, because they are cheaper that way. I will just use them over the next few seasons...

Tue Mar 05, 2013 12:13 pm

I have planted seeds that were a couple of years old and they did fine.

Thu Apr 11, 2013 4:47 am

Ahh I was going to post a new topic and now I know I don't need to thanks everyone for letting me eavesdrop! I was going to ask about some seeds I had from 2011 for planting as I did plant them tonight in trays to germinate, or rather see if they would. Good to know they will more likely be fine! I planted up some San M's, Cherry and Heirloom Yellow Pears. That and I was going to ask about the process of saving the seeds and drying them too lol. Glad I kept searching for the right thread!

Sun Apr 14, 2013 5:37 pm

Hey All - I just thought I'd add that you can increase the germination rate of old seeds if you provide an ideal and controlled germination environment for a given seed. It can get pretty complicated and specific if you have some old and rare seeds you really want to pamper, but basically I'm just talking about getting ideal temperature, light/dark, and moisture/oxygen levels.

It's certainly not as impressive as germinating 30 yo seeds (wow!), but I tried this out recently in a crude sense by pre-sprouting some pepper seeds from my first year gardening (4 years ago) and was surprised to get 100% germination in only four days! They had been stored properly for the last couple years but before that there were just in a box in my basement. I folded over toilet paper squares twice to get a small square, dipped those in water and put the seeds on, folded them once more, ran my finger over them so they were very damp but not sopping wet, and put them in an open ziplock bag. There's a little pipe coming out of my water heater that's about 95F, so I put the bag inside a folded hand towel and managed to get a perfect 85F.

It doesn't work with everything - I had some equally old lettuce seeds and did the same ziplock method but sitting on my window sill (so only ~65-70F but with sunlight) and while buttercrunch germinated pretty well, Red Romaine and Brune d' Hiver had 0% germination.

Mon Apr 15, 2013 3:57 am

You sure can! I've had some that were multiple years old that sprouted fine.

Mon Apr 15, 2013 4:28 am

So my question really then here is how do I go about drying my own seeds from tomatoes??

Mon Apr 15, 2013 12:43 pm

Hi Wing - Several posts up Gix goes through the basic process of saving tomato seeds. I won't steal his thunder by repeating it but if you have any questions please write back!

The only thing I would add relates to before the actual seed-saving process: keep in mind that while tomatoes generally self-pollinate, sometimes before the flowers are even open, they can still be cross pollinated by insects and such. If you're growing multiple tomato varieties or someone else is growing them pretty near you, if you want to be super sure you're getting seeds true to the parent, you'd have to cover some flowers to prevent bugs and stray pollen getting to them until the fruit starts to form.

Tomatoes seeds question