Saving Tomato Seeds: A Complete Guide for Organic Growers

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The flower of a modern tomato variety ('Solanum lycopersicum'), with an inserted stigma that is well within the anther cone, resulting in lower rates of cross-pollination. Insects may be your highest chance for pollination success while growing tomatoes.
The flower of a modern tomato variety ('Solanum lycopersicum'), with an inserted stigma that is well within the anther cone, resulting in lower rates of cross-pollination. Insects may be your highest chance for pollination success while growing tomatoes.
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The flower of a 'Pruden's Purple' heirloom tomato shows the exserted stigma that makes cross-pollination of such varieties by insects much more likely. The type of flower produced is important to think about when growing tomatoes for seed.
The flower of a 'Pruden's Purple' heirloom tomato shows the exserted stigma that makes cross-pollination of such varieties by insects much more likely. The type of flower produced is important to think about when growing tomatoes for seed.
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Written by well-known plant breeder and organic seed expert John Navazio,
Written by well-known plant breeder and organic seed expert John Navazio, "The Organic Seed Grower" is the most up-to-date and useful guide that will inspire vegetable growers interested in growing high-quality seeds using organic farming practices.

The Organic Seed Grower (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2012) is the most comprehensive manual on producing quality, organic seed crops on the homestead or small commercial farm. Organic farmers are becoming aware of the ever-diminishing number of high-quality, organic vegetable seed choices available to them. Author John Navazio combines traditional know-how and the latest scientific research to place organic growing power back into the hands of local seed growers and farmers. The following excerpt, from chapter 12, “Solanaceae,” covers growing tomatoes and saving tomato seeds.

Buy this book from the MOTHER EARTH NEWS bookstore:The Organic Seed Grower.

A Profile and History of Tomatoes

Common name: tomato
Crop species: Solanum lycopersicum L.
Life cycle: annual (perennial in the subtropics)
Mating system: largely self-pollinated, with increased crossing in some types due to flower structure
Mode of pollination: closed perfect flower that requires stimulation for pollen shed
Favorable temperature range for pollination/seed formation: 60–74°F (16–23°C)
Seasonal reproductive cycle: late spring through late summer or fall (4–5 months)
Within-row spacing: 1–1.5 in (2.5–4 cm)
Between-row spacing: 22–30 in (56–76 cm)
Species that will readily cross with crop: In subtropical areas there is a weedy cherry tomato (S. lycopersicum var. cerasiforme) that is fully sexually compatible.
Isolation distance between seed crops: 10–200 ft (3–61 m), depending on the crop type and barriers that may be present on the landscape

The cultivated tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is one of the most widely grown vegetables on Earth. It is among the five most important vegetables of commerce in many agricultural societies. This is remarkable when we consider that this humble fruit was only grown in limited areas of what is now southern Mexico and Guatemala in the early 1500s when invading Spanish conquistadores found it growing in Aztec villages. This fruit was called tomatl, or “swelling fruit,” in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs, which became tomate for the Spanish. The origin of this cultivated form is mired in mystery, as all of its wild relatives are native to mountainous regions of western South America, from Ecuador and Peru to northern Chile, including two species that are endemic to the Galapagos Islands. For many years the weedy cherry tomato of Mexico, Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme, was thought to be the progenitor of the cultivated type, but recent genetic profiling at Cornell University indicates that this weedy form is in fact a feral mixture between wild and cultivated types.

  • Published on Mar 19, 2014
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