Before I canned the first tomatoes the other day I saved some seed from them. Glasses are in no particular order.



Two days later I went to clean them and start them drying and noticed that some were definitely way farther along in the fermentation so I arranged the glasses in order of fermentation progress. Left to right, in the top row is Sweet Scarlet, Purple Russian, and Wisconsin 55. Bottom row includes Creole original, Fish Lake Oxheart and Brandywine (Suddith):



The one with the most fermentation was Sweet Scarlet and I couldn't help but wonder if this could be an indicator of the sugar level in these tomatoes.
Any thoughts?

By the way, since that streak of 100+ temps broke, there are more flowers on the tomatoes and I see some new ones setting. It's hard to can tomatoes when you get just a few at a time!

It might mean Sweet Scarlet contains more inulin. There are a lot of possibilities, I think.

Interesting observation. I suppose it is possible, but there are certainly going to be other factors like pH, salinity, type of growth. Might be easier to just do a BRIX reading

Oh glad I saw this I wanted to save seeds this year

I was noticing last year, how certain varieties fermented up their seed really quickly while others were slow... No correlation with fruit sweetness in this case. I am a bit mystified as to why some do like crazy and others harrumph.

I'm surprised that you have that much matting after two days. I usually have to leave mine to ferment for 3-5 days. I don't have an explanation for the difference in fermentation of your seeds.

Summer in Georgia.

Could it be from a slight difference in the degree of ripeness in each tomato batch when fermented? In my experience the older/over ripe tomatoes do seem to ferment faster that those squeezed in the prime of condition. But I have not done purposeful head to head experiments. Could be just a day or two of shelf sitting for various tomatoes might make a difference. And different varieties often room ripen or store at different rates. Or maybe just random spores floating in the air landing in that cup, or maybe the sugar!

I can't tell in that first pic if that "sweet scarlet" started out at a lower water level or not. But for me, one with less water will go faster, but risk drying out too much. I have taken to topping off with filtered water at the start when they seem like they may be too dry. I have had some dry too much with little to no fermentation and had to discard.

I never thought about it being sweetness or any reason other than wetness.

Leave it Shule to throw up a word not in my vocabulary...

Inluin is a prebiotic, or food for bacteria (kind of like FOS). Humans don't digest it. There's a lot of it in Jerusalem artichokes, which is why I think about it a lot (you have to let them endure some freezes to convert it to I think fructose, or there could be too much inulin to eat many). This site says tomatoes contain inulin and/or FOS; certainly, it's not in high enough amounts that you need to worry about it.

MissS wrote: ↑Wed Jun 29, 2022 10:54 pm I'm surprised that you have that much matting after two days. I usually have to leave mine to ferment for 3-5 days. I don't have an explanation for the difference in fermentation of your seeds.

@MissS , that's what prompted my wondering. I've never seen it form that fast!

Shule wrote: ↑Fri Jul 01, 2022 2:25 am Inluin is a prebiotic, or food for bacteria (kind of like FOS). Humans don't digest it. There's a lot of it in Jerusalem artichokes, which is why I think about it a lot (you have to let them endure some freezes to convert it to I think fructose, or there could be too much inulin to eat many). This site says tomatoes contain inulin and/or FOS; certainly, it's not in high enough amounts that you need to worry about it.

@Shule , I had not heard about the inulin converting to fructose in Jerulalem artichokes. That would be awesome and eliminate the "windy worries".

I will have to look that up.

Lots of variables in this fermentation thing, probably too many to put a finger on any one cause. Just one more thing to simply wonder about. I appreciate all the input!