I have had worm bins for 5 years now. They do a great job and the compost is the best I have ever used for everything. I have also added at least one tomato every time I have startyd a new bin. Every year I have tomatoes that sprout without fail. Doesn't matter if they are romas, herilooms, beefsteak or whatever type, I always have a large number of them sprout. I haven't figured out why this happens. The tomatoes can be in there for months in all different conditions and they still survive to bloom after being put out for other plants. I don't mind it because the seedlings are easy to identify but it baffles me how they survive so long and don't bloom until I put them out. I plan on intentionally putting both cherry and grape tomatoes in my bins when I restart the worm bins soon. I know they will grow and I won't have to buy seeds or sort them and dry them. Hopefully I can remember not to put any other tomatoes in there so I know that any that come up and grape or cherry toms. I will probably still save some of the seeds by other means just in case I get thwarted and nothing comes up this time. Does anyone have any thoughts on why the seeds do not germinate in the bins regardless of the conditions? This seems to me like a great way to save seeds without having to worry about them drying out, molding or otherwise succumbing to whatever has it out for us to ruin all the hard work.
So to clear up any confusion, the last paragraph has a typo, right? Because in it you are asking why they do "not" germinate, but the earlier part of the post says they do. Seeds will germinate when the conditions are right for them to do so, needing a warm growing medium as opposed to cold in the winter is most likely the reason they sit and wait. I have had them show up in compost at different times of the compost cycle and I figure the seeds do know what they are doing and go with their timing.
I had a tomato seed germinate and grow in the very front garden beside the sidewalk I have no idea how one lone seed got out there and then germinate but it did. Was a great conversation piece as everybody commented on it usually querying why I planted a tomato out by the sidewalk. It never did flower as it had a really late start but sure sparked conversation.
All I can say is,, mother nature knows what she is doing. Every year I toss all the bad tomatoes along the fence. This is from mid summer to frost so they have plenty of time to germinate and grow but they do not. Next season they come up everywhere. I think they are on a timer.
