Seeds from Frozen Tomatoes

[Nan6b]

Goodloe, are you doing Tomato Science? Love it! I did a total of 20 seeds, 10 each of two varieties.

[goodloe]

Nah...just trying to sound like I know what I'm talking about...

My main producer is Big Beef, but these frozen tomatoes probably include several other varieties, so we'll see how it goes...

[Shule]

[mention]goodloe[/mention] IMO, if you're doing seeds frozen in the fruit in a freezer, plant as many as you can (without promoting rotting), and if even one sprouts keep it to grow in the spring!

[goodloe]

Ok, Folks...I will be dropping previously frozen tomato seeds this afternoon! These seeds were taken from a bag of tomatoes that were "rough chopped", put in a ziplock bag, and frozen since about August, 2018. They are of several varieties, I imagine, but mostly Big Beef...They will be planted in 2 flats, 20 seeds each, and placed on a heat mat in a room that stays at about 68 deg...I will give them 21 days...so, if after those 21 days, I have zero germination, then I'll can the whole thing. Let's see what happens!!

[Nan6b]

My prediction is no germination. But if you do get germination, I'll be VERY interested.

[arnorrian]

I think freezing should not kill all the the seeds. I have many volunteers sprouting every spring from fruits that dropped from the vines. They survived on the surface, and we had temps down to -15 C (5 F) in the last couple of years.

[Shule]

I think freezing should not kill all the the seeds. I have many volunteers sprouting every spring from fruits that dropped from the vines. They survived on the surface, and we had temps down to -15 C (5 F) in the last couple of years.

We get tomato volunteers even when it's been below -20° F. in the winter, but I still haven't had a single seed frozen in the fruit in the freezer sprout, yet! I think the seeds must prep themselves for the winter somehow, as winter gradually gets more severe. I think it's more than the moisture factor, but I could be wrong. If it gets super cold for a long period all at once, maybe they just don't know how to handle it.

[MsCowpea]

This is bad news. For some reason I thought you could sprout seeds frozen inside the fresh fruits. Even though I never tried it. I wanted to use frozen peppers for seeds —I will still give it a go but doesn’t look promising.

[Shule]

[mention]MsCowpea[/mention]
Well, pepper seeds are a lot drier than tomato seeds in the fruits; so, there's a better chance for them, I think. Not sure, though. Frozen in the freezer or outdoors?

[Nan6b]

We could certainly do the experiment with pepper seeds...

[MsCowpea]

Shule, Freezer

[slugworth]

It is funny that compost pile volunteers will pop up after a nasty winter but whole frozen tomatoes won't.

[slugworth]

One year I was saving seeds from a round speckled roman tomato (normally a plum type).
Over many generations I was saving/starting seeds from only the round ones.
I got lazy and instead of saving seeds my usual way I froze the entire tomato (3 or 4)
None of those seeds popped the following planting season,so all that genetic materiel was lost.

[goodloe]

Well, folks, the results from my frozen tomato seed experiment are in. (See post #24 above). BIG FAT 0% Germination! Zip, zilch, zero, NADA!!...The question is settled, for me, at least...

[slugworth]

Store bought sun dried tomatoes don't pop either.
Burger king tomatoes will pop even after being microwaved.