my tomatoes on my plants have just started to turn red but they feel a little bit soft i tried one today and they have a ball of seeds inside ,does this mean they are not ready or are they over ripe :)
Sounds a little like botrytis. Have you noticed any grey mould around the area of the fruit? The fruit should be firm whilst ripening and of fairly even colouring. Any more info would help.
Do they look like this
[attachment=1]
yes davy that's exactly what they look like.
That is exactly how they should be all tomatoe,s have seed in them if they are not hydbred (F1) then you can save some seed for next year.
A ripe tomato should have a little give in it when squeezing so enjoy the fruits of what you have waited so long for.
You can perfectly well save seed of F1's. You'll have a variable crop the second year, and if you pick your favourite to save seed from, and do this for several years, you'll have your own variety. Toms are inbreeders so it couldn't be easier!
Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on July 10, 2009, 18:25:31
You can perfectly well save seed of F1's. You'll have a variable crop the second year, and if you pick your favourite to save seed from, and do this for several years, you'll have your own variety. Toms are inbreeders so it couldn't be easier!
It's great fun, saves all the hassle of making crosses too and skips the sometimes boring F1 phase. Someone doing it for te first time may be very surprised at the results, you can get all manner of colours and shapes of tomato from seed saved from an F1 red globe cherry.
It's also worth growing seed from shop bought toms, we had a delicious grape sized plum tomato from lidl, we saved seed and sowed this year, so far there has been no visible segregation, but maybe some will become apparent when the fruit ripens.
However, many so called F1s produce no segregation at all, seems those seed companies are prone to lying just to justify their high prices and to discourage us saving the seed.
Yes perhaps i should of said that you can save the seeds from F1s but dont expect to get the same type of tomato that the seed came from.
Its something i never do with F1s and yet i never fail to take my seeds from my heritage.