I am very disappointed. I have been anticipating saving seeds from one tomato plant that survived under the lights from my seed starting. I have been waiting for months (since March when I had this idea). I waited for the plant to fruit and mature. I resisted eating the couple ripe ones that made it so that I could do this experiment.

I left the tomato on the vine until it froze. Then I picked it and set it on the counter till I got around to it. It really didn’t look bad when I picked it, but after it sat around for a week, I figured I better get on this project before it is too late.

After reading the article in Self-Reliance Magazine, I was supposed to scoop out the seeds and place them in a vessel containing water. This container would stay in the refrigerator until the gelatinous coating around the seeds decomposed or separated. Viable seeds were supposed to sink to the bottom. All the gunk would be decanted off the top and the seeds could be dried with a paper towel. The dry seeds would be put in a cool and dry location, like in an envelope.

This technique is supposed to work with open pollenated varieties (also known as heirloom). I thought this was, but I could not find any seeds to remove. It is possible that I waited too long and the seeds were buried in the rotting flesh? I don’t know but I searched through this mess. This was the primary reason that I failed.

Back to the drawing board. My gardening success is directly proportional to how much effort I have put in. In the last couple years it has been very little to almost none. But, that is OK because my experiments are really an attempt to align how I want to garden with actual results. So, I will continue low effort type attempts in hopes that I will learn something valuable.

End Your Programming Routine: It has never been intent my to only show successes. In fact, I want to be real with what I do. Of course it wounds my pride to fail at this endeavor. I believe in my heart that I should be able to do anything that I set my mind to. That being said, I am a strong believer of failure as a teacher and the only way to learn is to fail. To be honest, I only selected this tomato because it was the one that ripened. Maybe, if I pay more attention to variety, growing and harvest, I can accomplish this experiment next year.