Well, another year of failure trying to save seeds. I grew two plants that came from Neon seeds saved by another member here, so my plants were from F2 seeds. They were a bit different -- one fruit looked like original Neon and the other was a beautiful deep shade of purple (not "black"). Both had thin skins and white flesh, but the darker one was a smaller plant and had more of the classic "teardrop" shape. Both were very tasty, but I was really interested in the darker one.
I watched the YouTube videos, let the fruits get seriously over-ripe, and then processed the seeds by hand -- at least a hundred of each. I would say that the seeds were a little smaller than I'm used to, but were nice and plump. I ran a "paper towel" germination test -- zero germination from either batch after 14 days with bottom heat. Bummer! I'll try again before regular planting time, but I'm not optimistic for success.
Any thoughts? I don't understand why the F1 plant saved seeds were viable and then the F2 seeds failed to be viable if it is a genetic issue. OTOH, I don't know of anything that I did that would have caused the failure.
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