The Mistakes I Make

I decided to sow tomatoes today....  Well, I actually decided to sow them on Monday but didn't get around to it, so, this morning, I decided to complete that task.

I grew tomatoes last year and saved the seeds.   I have adopted a simple method for seed saving of tomato seeds.   I get rid of as much pulp as possible and then spread the wet seeds onto several layers of paper kitchen towel and let the whole thing dry.  Once dry I carefully fold the towel so that the seeds are safe inside and put it away in the dry.  Then, when today comes,along and it's time to sow, I simply prepare my seed trays with moist compost, lay the kitchen towel over the top, bury it with a couple of mm more compost and leave them to germinate.  If I have too many seeds, I tear the paper up, keeping the seeds buried in the middle.  and use only part.   As you can see, it's not very pretty, but it's easy and it works.

To be honest, I've been a bit ashamed of this lazy practice so have not mentioned it much, but I was heartened today when searching blogs for something else and came across The Cottage Smallholder's blog post "How to Save Tomato Seed Easily" and discovered that she also uses a similar "lazy" method.  It works every time for me, although if the seeds are destined to be exchanged I treat them rather differently.

I mentioned earlier that I intended to sow tomatoes on Monday.  Well, that was why I was reading Fiona's blog...  I have a  workshop where I do things like sowing and had got out my saved seeds.  Sadly, at the end of the day, as  time avoided me, I forgot to put the seeds away again.... and, as I was occupied all day yesterday, they had sat there for about 36 hours.

Although, in fact they hadn't.  When I finally got around to doing the task, I discovered that my seeds for "Golden Sunrise" tomatoes had all been eaten.... Every last seed..... gone.

It's a pity, because, over the past three years I have acclimatised these  seeds and was hoping that this year they would provide a good crop.   On a side note, I noticed that Fiona lists this variety as pretty tasteless.   I have to say, my own experience is contrary to that.   Last year I truly enjoyed these medium sized golden tomatoes, but perhaps they need the longer summer get here as opposed to the UK?

Hopefully the experience will teach me to take more care of my precious seeds.

Oh, in the end. the only tomato seeds I sowed were Ian's Red Cherry, Veeroma, Marmande and some seeds which I think are Ananas.     I was given the Ananas seed a couple of years ago by chaiselongue  and have grown them since and the Veeroma were also given to me, this time by Miss Fuggle.   I did also sow a pot of Marigolds and a pot of coriander though