Recleaning saved seeds

[SuperSystem7]

Hi first time posting, hope this is the right sub forum for it.

I bought some local seeds although they weren't cleaned properly, there are tomato flesh debris and crushed seeds.
So i'm wondering if there is a way to re-clean them before putting them in storage.

[bower]

I had some seeds in a similar condition (but not crushed) which were dried without removing the gel. I didn't do anything to remove the tomato bits but I soaked them in whey (the liquid that separates toward the bottom of a plain yoghurt container) before planting, for the supposed protective effect of lactobacillus when cleaning by fermentation, and they were fine. Others report they've planted such seeds with no treatment and they germinated fine.
I've never heard anyone describe a process for cleaning seeds already dried, so this might be a first if you do try it.
I would think that you could put them through the fermentation process to clean them, using juice from another ripe tomato to soak them and start the ferment. Crushed seeds and coarse tomato debris would then be decanted off. But I don't know if an ordinary ferment would be enough to remove dried on gel from the seeds. Might or might not.
Also IDK if seeds already dried might be more prone to germinate as soon as they're soaked. Quite possibly they would sprout and then you would have to plant them or lose them, instead of putting in storage.
Some people iirc? use a brief soak for an hour or two (? I think?) in diluted hydrogen peroxide to clean their seeds. This might be a better bet to avoid sprouting the seeds. Again it would allow you to decant coarse debris and crushed seeds, but whether it would totally clean them IDK. A similar method is used to clean rose seeds, with a soak overnight in water with some hydrogen peroxide. I've done that and it certainly cleaned the rose seeds well. A soak for a couple of hours, or even overnight, shouldn't get to the point of sprouting, so you could then dry and store them I think.
It sounds like those seeds were run through a blender. I've heard of it being done, but for sure there's a risk of damaging the seeds.

[pepperhead212]

Welcome to the forum!

With fresh seeds, to dissolve the gel, I use the Oxiclean method: dissolve 1 tb Oxiclean in 1 c water, and soak the seeds 30 minutes. Then I massage them in a strainer, fine enough to hold the seeds, but let the dissolved gel and other bits through. I don't know how well that would work with dried seeds, but you could try a small amount.

[MissS]

The reason for cleaning the gel off of the seed is for disease prevention. I wouldn't re-clean them to put into storage. Any moisture given to them now would start the germination process and you would lose the seeds that you did not grow on. I would use a bleach or hydrogen peroxide soak and then rinse them just before sowing if you want to prevent disease. Dirty seeds won't hurt anything while in storage.

Welcome to the Junction!

[SuperSystem7]

Thanks for the advice,
I can try a bleach soak before sowing, and store the rest dirty.
Would a 1:4 bleach to water ratio and soaking for 30 mins be enough?

[MissS]

Thanks for the advice,
I can try a bleach soak before sowing, and store the rest dirty.
Would a 1:4 bleach to water ratio and soaking for 30 mins be enough?

Yes and I only soak mine for 10 minutes. I have no idea if soaking them longer would hurt them or not.

[bower]

In general, there's a line to walk between concentrations/time of soaking/effectiveness vs germination rate/loss of germination. It also varies depending on the type of seeds, so the method should be specifically tested on tomato seeds for your application.

I need to do some review on seed sterilizing methods in the near future, and I'll post it when I do.
I think the method for tomato seeds suggested at TGRC was a ten minute soak in a 1/10 dilution of household bleach, but I don't trust my memory on that. Will look it up and get back to you.

[SuperSystem7]

@bower Ok, I will be standing by,
by the way, I have 5g of dirty seeds (around 0.175 oz), and started a germination test on the 23rd (25 seeds, with tissue paper inside a ziplock)

[sheltyone]

Welcome to the forum!

With fresh seeds, to dissolve the gel, I use the Oxiclean method: dissolve 1 tb Oxiclean in 1 c water, and soak the seeds 30 minutes. Then I massage them in a strainer, fine enough to hold the seeds, but let the dissolved gel and other bits through. I don't know how well that would work with dried seeds, but you could try a small amount.

I have gotten extremely lazy over the years about cleaning my seeds. Now I just put them in a fine mesh strainer, pour on some Ajax powder, scrub the seeds around for a minute or so, rinse off the Ajax, put the seeds out to dry on an opened-up cone coffee filter, and call it good. Seems to work OK for me.