I’m always on the lookout for easier, better, smarter ways of doing things. This video shows a super easy way of growing tomatoes. “All you need is a pot, soil, and one tomato. Don’t believe me? Just watch…”
YouTube
Buying seeds gets expensive for a large garden, and seed saving can be tricky. Seeds quickly mold in our hot, humid climate. So this method looks very practical. You could use a tomato that’s over ripe or has a bad spot.
This is awesome! Thanks for sharing :-)
In a previous blog post I told the story of how we got our best papaya starts from our compost. I can’t prove this, but it seemed like the composting process made the plants especially vigorous. Maybe composted seeds and seedlings get covered in enzymes and beneficial microbes?
I do this with a lot of fruits, pumpkins, squash, peppers, lettuce, cukes etc..Seed is expensive and I don’t buy a lot anymore…One pepper can give me over a hundred seedlings. The Big Box stores sell them, a single plant, for $3.99 each..Do the math..Plus I get to eat the food first….Sometimes, I get a few surprises….
I carry this a step farther.I take a good tasting tomato such as the old heirlooms. For example the Black Russian, Black Krim,Cherokee purple,Pruden’s Purple etc,etc.
You will need a piece of clean window screen and some cheese cloth and a fan or two.Place the window screen on two sawhorses or suspend it some way so air can circulate around it. Lay a piece of cheese cloth on the screen.
Slice the tomato into fairly thin slices and lay them out on the cheese cloth and cover them with more cheese cloth to keep bugs, flies etc off of them. Place the fan(s)so they circulate air above and below to DRY the tomato slices. Do this in a place where it’s not hot or where they can get rained on.
This is drying tomatoes- NOT dehydrating tomatoes. If you use a dehydrator or oven you will destroy the seeds for planting purposes.
You can do lots of these if you have large screens and tomatoes.They taste great and are kinda like jerky. Eat them as is or cook with them and then when it’s time to plant tomatoes a year or two or three down the road just tear or cut one of the slices in pieces and plant in a pot and when the seedling are large enough gently separate them and put into larger pots.You just need a small section of a slice to get many, many tomatoes.
Label the different varieties and keep them in different containers so you know what you are planting (or trading). Jars or Zip lock bags work well for storage.
Drying takes a couple of days here in Montana. The slices will be leathery, not brittle.
Good idea, thanks.