Comments on: Collecting and Storing Garden Seeds

By: Coldprairie

Coldprairie — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 04:58:23 +0000

Yeah, please let us know later if there’s any difference. ‘Cause if the coating stops germination until it rots it could be a late start to the harvest…

By: Meadowwood Garden

Meadowwood Garden — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:21:04 +0000

I thought the same thing as well, but it turns out the fermentation is to help get rid of the gunk around the seeds. I found this blurb somewhere:

Tomato seeds are covered by a soft gel coating and, in their wild state, this stops the seeds from germinating until the gel has rotted away. If you save the seed without removing the gel, it will stick to whatever you dry it on – paper, for example – and will take longer to germinate when sown.

For the purposes of this article I thought the easiest way possible was the best to present. I’ll be trying both methods this season and if it turns out one is substantially better than another I’ll report on it.

By: Tatiana

Tatiana — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:01:54 +0000

But but but… I thought you had to ferment tomato seeds before drying? Is that just one of those ‘common wisdom’ things that’s just plain wrong?

Excellent post – I wondered whether I’ll need some books on seed saving, but given the challenges of some seeds, I may not bother this year.