How to get our tomato seeds

Greetings to the @steemiteducation community, this time I want to explain the process to obtain our tomato seeds and their germination, we just need to have a good fruit to extract the seeds and follow some steps that I will explain next.

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How to obtain our tomato seeds?

• Step 1
  First, we must have fruits of good size and color, and these must be ripe, they can be obtained in the markets.

• Step 2
  Cut the tomato to extract the seeds, which we will place in a glass.
  

  

• Step 3
  Prepare a juice with the tomato pulp that remains after extracting the seeds, with the use of a juice extractor or blender without water, I recommend you if we use the blender, strain the juice, then add it to the seeds and wait 48 hours to ferment.
  

  

This step is important, because this fermented juice will clean and disinfect the seeds.

• Step 4
  Wash the seeds and let them drain in the colander, and proceed to drying with the use of an electric household fan
  so that they lose moisture, then put 30 minutes a day for 3 days outdoors, if we expose it to the sun, we could cover the seeds with some mesh so that the sun's rays do not directly affect them.
  

• Step 5
  Once we have the seeds dry, proceed to separate them by hand and save them in paper envelopes, in the following photo you can see how the seeds have been after this process, they will look clean and ready to save or to prepare the seedlings.
  

Preparation of the germination trays:

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The materials to use:

• Germination trays of 168 to 200 cells, plastic or anime
  
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• Sifted earth mixed with wood sawdust, manure or compost
• A small shower
• A small gardening palin
• One gram of seeds per tray
• Wooden sticks to open the holes in each cell.

Next step:

• Fill the cells with the sand mixture

• With a toothpick open the grooves in the earth, in each cell.
  

Place the seeds on a piece of paper, in this case I have placed them on a plate, use the wooden rod and the wet tip, touch the seeds, and you can see that they adhere and then place them in the holes to a depth of 4 by 5 millimeters and successively until the tray is full, then covered with the same sand.

Observe how the seed adheres to the wooden stick:

So:

We place the trays in the shade and apply a daily watering with little water, just keep the soil moist until it germinates and then continue with the waterings in the morning and in the afternoon.

If we want to accelerate the germination, we can place the trays inside black bags, we will try that the plastic does not make contact with the tray, which will remain for 3 days in this hermetic environment, which simulates a germination chamber, but should check them continuously, because when germinen will go in search of light and if we neglect, we will find very thin and stretched seedlings and this would be fatal.

Germination time, fertilization and control of pests and diseases

The seeds germinate between 5 and 8 days, after having passed the 10 days, they will begin with the application of twice a week, in minimum doses, of foliar fertilizer with high content of phosphorus to stimulate the growth of the roots, and To the prevention of fungi, apply once a week a fungicide based on Mancozobet, in minimum doses.

To avoid using insecticides, I prefer to cover the seedlings with meshes to protect them from pests and insects such as mites, whitefly or other butterflies, which can deposit their eggs on the leaves. The seedlings will remain in the trays for 21 to 25 days, until they reach a height of 12 centimeters, considering themselves suitable to be transplanted.

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The quality of the seedlings are important to obtain good yields in our crops, that is why we must have good seeds and take good care of the seedlings to have healthy and vigorous seedlings.

I hope this work is a good contribution to the Steemit community, regards.