Seed Circle Number 10 - Tomato Treat 2012

[Poolcue]

Batch of Early Tanana now done and bagged up.
It is a lot easier doing early season tomatoes.

[chris]

I'm slacking on the seed saving front, wife forgot and ate some toms I picked the other day - none others are ripening yet

One of the brandywines I did pick though, unbelievably had 2... yes TWO seeds in the whole tomato. I'm saving them, if I can grow them on and it's a favourable trait I'll see if I can keep them going and dish them out - they're extremely meaty inside.

[Matt94]

just put my tom seeds on a piece of kitchen towel, then put them on a plate to dry.

does anyone know roughly how long it takes tom seeds to dry out? (just wanting to know how long to wait before bagging them up!)

[zazen999]

just put my tom seeds on a piece of kitchen towel, then put them on a plate to dry.

does anyone know roughly how long it takes tom seeds to dry out? (just wanting to know how long to wait before bagging them up!)

It's easier if you ferment for 3 days, then put straight onto a plate. Particularly this year with all this blight around, ferment any disease off the seeds.

I always leave mine a week on a plate, before bagging up. But that's with really warm weather.

[Matt94]

It's easier if you ferment for 3 days

i did, i posted when i started to ferment them on the previous page , but i emptied them out of the jar today and wondered roughly how long they would take to dry out!

They are currently on the top of the fridge, as i wasn't sure whether they are supposed to be placed out of direct sunlight?

[Poolcue]

I cover mine with kitchen tissue so they aren't in direct sunlight.A week or two is usually enough.If they are dry they will come off the tissue easily.I am getting quite adept with the tweezers.

[Matt94]

just started my second batch of hundreds and thousands to ferment, when they have finished fermenting my first lot will be ready to bag up.

unfortunately my sunbaby's havent started to ripen yet - but there are lots on, so when they do there will be loads of seed!

[Davyburns]

Nice to hear so many success stories even though its been a really bad year.

[Sylvan]

Sadly mine's still a failure story at the moment. Hundreds of flowers and even a few small green fruits but the only two that came anywhere near ripening were stolen (by the blackbirds I suspect) shortly before they were ready to pick
Fingers crossed for a good September.

[Paulieb]

For the particular attention of Davyburns, but also for anyone else whos interested.

How exactly do you want the seeds packaged to be sent to you. i.e. 25 packs of 6-8 seeds, or 1 pack of 100-125 seeds?

Also currently I have about 100-150 seeds each of Hahnstown Yellow and Ukraine Kibits, so that is what I'll be supplying this year.

The White Wax was a waste of time!

[Matt94]

How exactly do you want the seeds packaged to be sent to you. i.e. 25 packs of 6-8 seeds, or 1 pack of 100-125 seeds?

Hi paulieb - you will need to put them into seperate packs for each grape - so 25 packs with around 10 seeds in each pack. so if you are putting in 2 varieties you will need 50 packs - and as for what to put them in - either zip lock bags, 'money' envelopes or even homemade envelopes!

It would be unfare if davy had to supply the 100's of packs

[Paulieb]

That is what I'd suspected was required.

I've already got a job lot of mini zip lock bags so will bag them up. I guess the bags need to be labelled too so that Davy only has to divvy up the bags of seeds into each persons envelope.

Is 10 the ideal required number of seeds? - obvioulsy if you have less then there nothing else you can do.

[Thelma Sanders]

- but anyway, one or two seeds are better than none if numbers are down. Quite a few of us grown small numbers of lots of varieties so would rather one or two than none.

So, the way I understand it - 10 seeds of each variety for each swap member is the aim, but no panic if you can't make that many in each envelope

[Matt94]

So, the way I understand it - 10 seeds of each variety for each swap member is the aim, but no panic if you can't make that many in each envelope

yep, 10 is a rough guide, so dont worry too much if you have a few less

[Matt94]

I've already got a job lot of mini zip lock bags so will bag them up. I guess the bags need to be labelled too so that Davy only has to divvy up the bags of seeds into each persons envelope.

Is 10 the ideal required number of seeds? - obvioulsy if you have less then there nothing else you can do.

yes each bag/packet needs to have the variety of tom on it, the date it was collected and it also need to have your name on it, so for example my label should look like this;

Tomato - Hundreds and Thousands
Collected - 09/2012
From - Matt94

And yes as i have said above, 10 seeds is a rough guideline - so that everyone gets a good/equal number of seeds back - just put as many as you can spare into each pack!