Dealing with health issues at the worst possible time of the year, now I feel even worse. I put the seeds from the last decent tomato to soak 2 days ago and then didn't get back to them until just now. I rinsed them well in a strainer and put them out on a paper towel. As I was separating them, it appears that every last one of them has started to sprout. Just barely but I can see tiny growths. Just venting as I know it's too late to reverse the process but how in only 2 days could this have happened?

Never heard of such a thing! I assume that by setting them "to soak" you meant ferment, to save? It doesn't seem like that would have happened in that short time. And if you were trying to save, I wouldn't think you would be soaking them in water.

That happened to me, and it turned out that they were not sprouts. They were tiny little worms/grubs! I was shocked! There must have been larvae on the tomatoes and they had begun to hatch in the solution as it fermented. So many of the seeds had them, I was sure they were all sprouting. It wasn't until I noticed one tiny one move a little that I was able to look closely enough and find a couple others that were moving! They were so tiny that I had trouble seeing them move. I had taken one off, brushed it off the seed and noticed it move on the paper towel. I squished and squished and rinsed and then dried them out on a paper plate and they seem like perfectly good seeds! It was the darndest thing! So be very very sure before you give up! I would even dry them and then germination test them. Unless you have very sharp eyes, they can be so small and move only so slightly, that you might easily miss what they really are!

[mention]pepperhead212[/mention] I only intended to soak them for an hour then rinse them under running water in a sieve.
[mention]Sue_CT[/mention] OMG. I will have to look again.
Thanks!

That is unbelievable! I never saw such a thing, but something I will watch for, if I ever see any "sprouts"!

I have never seen it happen before, and I wish now that I had taken pictures and maybe a video. Maybe if a photo was enlarged enough they would have been more visible than to the naked eye. I would love to take a closer look at them now. It was the weirdest thing!

Well, I didn't see anything moving. I am going to let them dry a couple of days then do a germination test. So we'll see. Thank you!

Some varieties do sprout easily in the fermentation soak. Micro Tom is very well known for this I found out so didn't feel as bad that my one day soak had sprouts...
Hope yours are still good as it would be a shame to lose them all.

Even though they came from my grow outs of your seed, I am thinking I should throw away those seeds I saved. I recall the tomatoes I took them from were going bad and there was odd fungal growth on the fermentation so I am afraid to pass on any seed born dieases. I might do a germination test first just to see if it is ok and verify what I believed to be something other than early sprouting of the seeds. They were the second set of seeds I saved from the ML plants this year. The first set I am keeping as they came from disease free fruit. I have not used bleach or hydrogen peroxide, but I might look into that also. I still have a couple of tomatoes from those vines that look good so I will try a clean jar and saving more seed from those.

[mention]Sue_CT[/mention] I agree ... Better safe than sorry. If there is any chance of disease clinging to the seeds I would hate to pass that on.