G’day Folks,
This is my first post so please be kind.
Tomatoes are just coming into season here and I picked my first home grown tomato today. I made myself a snack with some cheese and the tomato on chrispbread (delicious by the way). Only thing is on the last piece I noticed something a bit odd - greeny bits where the seeds were. On closer look I realised the seeds had germinated.
So are tomato seeds poisonous? What about germinated tomato seeds?
Have I just inadvertently wormed myself?
Unless pesticides and/or herbicides have been used on the tomato patch, and the good thing about homegrown is you know with certainty whether or not that’s the case, you should be just fine.
Curious… are you just being cautious or did you begin to feel ill after your snack?
Tomatoes are generally listed as “toxic-do not eat” on lists of sprouts. (By people who are into such things, like these guys (see the sidebar).) But did you actually see sprouts? Or just green goo in the seed part of the tomato fruit? I’ve seen plenty of tomatoes (usually underripe ones) with greenish goo around the seeds, and they’re fine. Actual sprouts I’d avoid.
Most often reported from eating tomato sprouts are feelings of bloat and diarrhea. If you didn’t have that, you’re probably fine.
Well there were no apparent ill effects.
The seeds had definitely germinated - the green bits were little leaflets (I have a cheap little plastic microscope I was given when I was 8 or 9. I don’t know what is more amazing -the fact that I still have it or the fact it still works).
I have grown and eaten many a tomato but I have never seen the seeds germinate inside the tomato like that (I only picked it yesterday afternoon though it was fairly ripe).
Thanks for the replies folks
mrw