[RPMcMurphy]

possible?

Whole foods has had these local heirloom jersey tomatoes that are the best I've ever tasted.

I'm going to can or freeze a bunch....but I'm wondering, with my venture into a small garden next year....can I grow them on my own starting with a few tomatoes from the store?

what's the process?

[stir it up]

Randall, Tomatoes are generally self pollinating, so in general, a large type tomato will breed relatively true to type, if it truly was an heirloom / open pollinated type. Small tomatoes like wild tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, current tomatoes are more likely to cross, so even in heirlooms for those you can have some different tomatoes showing up when you grow them out. If they were hybrids, the seeds might not replicate the parent tomato.

So in a nutshell, if you love the tomato and it's an heirloom and not tiny, it has a decent chance at coming out same or similar to the one you have.

(I'm sure KYH will correct any errors I've made...)

Some other vegetables, like squash for instance can cross pollinate for distances like a quarter mile, so something like a squash wouldn't be a good candidate to grow from seeds from one in the store you liked, but tomatoes are worth taking the chance.

I like to "clean" the tomato seeds, by fermenting tomato goo, then everything molds off at the top, and cleaned seeds come out the bottom. Kinda unpleasant to have around... you can just dry them with their goo and plant them like that next year too.

I'd think coming from Whole Paycheck, they're not irradiated.

Good luck.

[Richard Wilts]

Originally Posted by RPMcMurphy

possible?

Whole foods has had these local heirloom jersey tomatoes that are the best I've ever tasted.

I'm going to can or freeze a bunch....but I'm wondering, with my venture into a small garden next year....can I grow them on my own starting with a few tomatoes from the store?

what's the process?

RP...I know I,m a little late with this but I,ve grown heirooom tomtoes for 12 years and have grown about 50 or so different kinds ,,yes you can take the seed of heirlooms tomatoes ,ferment them and you will end up with the same tomato..but hybrids are a cross of two or more different plants and you will end up with the parent plants coming up ..I belong to the [Gardenweb tomato forum] a great site for any information on heirloom tomatoes...never heard of Jersey is that the heirloom name?Also I buy my seed from [Totally Tomatoes,and there is many others the forum list many differnt mag.]

[KYHeirloomer]

I'd say you pretty much covered the basics, Stir It Up.

One comment: The "goo" surrounding the seeds contains anti-germination compounds. Give it a little thought and you'll understand why: the warm, moist interior of a tomato is the perfect nursery for seed germination.

One reason we ferment tomato seed is to get rid of those compounds.

If you forego fermentation, make sure you over-plant when starting seeds (which, RP, should be done indoors six to eight weeks before last frost), because germination rates will be way lower than normal.

Think about how many seeds a typical tomato has. Then think about the small number of volunteers that result.

[KYHeirloomer]

>can I grow them on my own starting with a few tomatoes from the store? <

RP,

FYI, many of the heirloom varieties we've rescued through the years were done just that way.

For instance, Black Mountain Pink was popularized by a collector who found them in the London (KY) flea market.

The process is the same as from tomatoes you've grown yourself. Remove the seed mass (most people merely squeese out the juice and seed mass, but I do it with a spoon, and save the flesh for making sauce) to a waterproof container. Add an equal volume of water.

Stir once a day.

Depending on temperature, in from one to three days fermentation will start. Viable seed will sink. Non viable seed, debris, remains of the gel coat, etc. will float, and a white mold will form on the surface.

When all the good seed has dropped to the bottom (about five days, usually), pour off the crud. Wash the seed well and dry it on paper or foam plates. Try to get as near a single layer as you can, and stir the seed (and rub it between your fingers) periodically as it dries.

When it's surface dried, leave it alone to dry fully. This takes from 1 to 3 weeks. Err on the side of lengthier drying. Then store the seed.

I use empty pill bottles for this.

Depending on variety, tomato seed remains viable for 4-10 years.