By LaVERLE McCANDLESS
Contributor
“I love the garden, and I love gardening. I feel about gardening the way I feel about stirring a pot of soup, canoeing in the rain, singing in a large group, holding a child in my arms, or swimming in the dark. It makes me feel human.” Neenah Ellis
What's happening in the world of gardening? Watering, dead heading, digging up and separating spring blooming bulbs and replanting, picking, pulling and digging fresh veggies, turning the compost, placing more compost around the trees, bushes and plants to conserve water. All of us that can, freeze and/or dry have started the process.
Saving seed from heirloom plants such as tomatoes for planting next season isn't hard. There could be a problem though if you plant more than one variety of tomatoes in the same area of the garden, cross-pollination happens.
It doesn't matter if it is a small garden or a commercial seed company raising seed. We have a “tomato stranger” in our garden!
This tomato is very interesting, nothing like we have seen before, leaves are very small, not a bush tomato as its three sibling tomatoes are, the tomatoes were first on the vine and keep growing and growing, odd shape and color. It was not a green-green when the tomatoes started and it is off white now.
A very interesting plant to say the least. So you see, cross-pollination or something happened at the seed plant and we just happened to get a real different type of tomato.
Once you have decided to save seeds from the heirloom tomato, pick a tomato or two, tie a ribbon, colored yarn or something to the stem of the tomato to make sure you don't pick it to eat. You want this tomato to ripen on the vine to the point it is past firm. Once it is ripe, cut it in half cross ways of the tomato, squeeze out the pulp and seeds.
The easiest way to save your tomato seeds, is to mix the pulp containing the seeds in a cup or pint clear glass jar full of water, stir the seeds, pulp and water well to separate the seeds from the pulp. (Clear glass jar would be preferable as you can see the seeds at the bottom and not pour them out.) Let this sit over night on the counter.
In the morning, you will see a lot of pulp and seeds floating and sometimes bubbles. The water and pulp tends to ferment, especially when it is warm. Pour the liquid out very carefully to remove the pulp and floating seeds.
The viable seeds are at the bottom of the cup and the sterile seeds are at the top in amongst the pulp. Refill the cup/glass jar and let the seeds settle, once settled drain the water, then spread the seeds out on a plastic plate to let them dry.
Once they dry, they are clean and easy to handle. Put them in a paper envelope, label it with date and variety, store in a cool, dark, dry place. You can also put them in the refrigerator where you would normally store your butter, not in the crisper or meat keeper drawers.
REMEMBER, if you have more than a single variety of tomatoes, the seeds may and most likely not be the exact seed of the parent—cross pollination happened but who knows, you may come up with the perfect, early, best tasting tomato in the state!
Speaking of seeds—weeding is important now as those little bugger weeds can be 2-3 inches tall and setting seeds. One little tiny plant can drop hundreds of seeds and those seeds can be viable in your garden 10 or more years. Two or three years down the road you may see this weed pop up again and you know for sure you kept your garden clean of weeds EXCEPT for that one little ornery weed that hid right behind your favorite shrubby plant.
Then, there is the possibility of weed seeds being blown in, or come in with a potted plant, who knows? But weeds are gardeners' excuse to be out among the plants every single day.
Gardening questions? We are as close as the phone 455-7568 or e-mail at: [email protected]
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