Over fermented seeds
 

I forgot about some tomato seeds I had fermenting in my warm garage and left them for about 8-9 days instead of my usual 4 days. Aside from lots of wiggling larvae swimming around in the juice (yuk), all went well except the deeds are darker than normal, a light to medium brown instead of the usual light straw color. Is there any reason to believe this will affect the germination of these seeds?

Light brown is probably okay, if left longer they do turn really dark and I think are no good or close to it.

In 2008, I was given some tomato seeds that were in a dry conglomerate, so I washed them and they came out very dark in color when dried. Fast forward to 2018 and the same seeds germinated OK for me. Given in they weren't fermented as such, the tomato probably just rotted to end up like it did. Don't let color fool you.


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[QUOTE=TomNJ;716451]I forgot about some tomato seeds I had fermenting in my warm garage and left them for about 8-9 days instead of my usual 4 days. Aside from lots of wiggling larvae swimming around in the juice (yuk), all went well except the deeds are darker than normal, a light to medium brown instead of the usual light straw color. Is there any reason to believe this will affect the germination of these seeds?[/QUOTE]

Yes is a quick answer.

But it depends on what color they are which can range from a light brown to a darker brown to BLACK. When the black ones are dried down I've never been able to get them to germinate,but sometimes yes and sometimes no for the other colors.

And the degree to which I will be concerned about it rests with how hard it might be to find replacement seeds as to where and if still available.

There are times when I've been sent as few as just 3 seeds,no more and if that doesn't turn out,that's it.

Carolyn

I have had the same experience as Carolyn wrote about.

I have had the seeds start germinating while fermenting if they are fermented too long. Once that happens they are no good even if the color of the seeds is normal.

Bill

One way to have a better idea as to viability, if you have enough of those seeds, is to do a germination test and see what happens.

There's only one way to find out for sure. If you have enough seeds, do the test before next sowing season.

[QUOTE=Tormato;716781]There's only one way to find out for sure. If you have enough seeds, do the test before next sowing season.[/QUOTE]


This is the right answer.