I'm finally saving some seeds

[booger]

Being my first year for saving seeds, I've been putting it off...and off...and off! Tonight, I finally sat down and did a couple of things. Acutally, I started to do a few tomatoes mid-summer but left them outside and the wind knocked them over.

An old neighbor fella gave me some peppers this week. He's not sure what they are but he got them from a lady in the county and saved seeds from them to grow. They little purple things, beautiful! There are a few orange and red ones that I'm figuring are part of the color progression to purple. I did some searching online to see what they might be but I'm not really sure. They're pretty similar to Purple Peruvians and, oh, I can't think of the name of the other now. Anyway, I'll have to take some pics of his plants and see if anyone knows what they are. They're hot but not terribly so.

I also saved some seeds from a tomato that's not available commercially, as far as I've know. I got them from a generous soul who helped get me started on OPs this year. She called them Mountain but they're not any of the Mountain varieties you see listed for sale anywhere. It's a beautiful plant and the tomato is very similar to Pruden's Purple, in my very limited OP experience. They average about a pound, I'd say. Very, very meaty. Basic tomato red in color. I'll have to dig up my notes on these, if they survived my last computer crash.

Now to just get the rest of the pepper and tomato varieties I want saved. The rest are all available commercially but who the heck wants to have to buy them each year? Besides, I need something for the upcoming seed swap, right? Now if I can only keep the cats from knocking them around the room until they dry....

 

[summerthyme]

Booger- how are you preparing them? (The cats knocking them around the room makes me think you're trying to save them in the whole fruit?)

What you want to do is wait until the fruit is REALLY ripe- but not rotting. Then, remove the seeds. With peppers, all you have to do is take them off the membrane they are attached to in the center of the fruit, and then spread them out on anything from waxed paper to window screen to dry. After a couple of weeks (LABEL them while they are drying, unless you're only drying one variety!) stir them around, and then bottle them up for storage.

Tomatoes are supposed to be fermented (seems it' supposed to kill off some plant borne viruses and diseases). It's simple- scrape the seeds and gel that surrounds them into a paper cup (it can be a glass or plastic one, but these can get pretty gross- I like tossing them out when I'm done) and add water. After 2-5 days, when it's bubbling and frothy looking, dump it into a sieve and rinse them well. This process also helps separate the seeds from the pulp.

Spread them out to dry just like the peppers.

On those purple peppers, you might want to ask the person how the color progression goes. Most seem to eventually end up red, but this could be a different variety. But you don't want to be waiting for those red ones to change to purple, when they're already ready to take the seeds from!!

Remember- LABEL everything, during the whole process. And they date the container when you stash them away. We always think we'll remember everything. Wanna bet? LOL!

Summerthyme

 

[booger]

Tomato seeds are fermenting and pepper seeds are drying, just as you said. On the cats, I meant knocking the cups ad paper plates over.

 

[Todd]

Booger,

I sent the tomato seeds today- Monday- (plus a lot of other info). Just so you know, I have a number of other OP tomatoes and other vegies. Just ask.

Todd

 

[booger]

Oh, thank you so much, Todd!! Once I get my seeds figured out, I'll holler with a list of them to see if there are any you want. (There have to be at least a couple of varieties out in the world that you don't yet have, right? ) I will most certainly come begging for seeds if I ever figure out what I'm going to grow next year.