chrmann

Since seedless tomatoes aren't on the market yet, and even then it would take time to taste-test them, why don't you look for existing varieties that are meatier and have fewer seeds. Maybe you could remove them if it isn't too tedious. Or the eater could if there aren't many.

The link below has many tomato varieties listed as having "few seeds". You can find them quickly by doing a page search for "few seeds". With heirlooms you'd certainly get the taste you want!

Here is a link that might be useful: heirloomseeds.com

My Mother-in-law has diverticulosis , which becomes diverticulitis quite often. She cannot eat any seeds.
My husband just found out he has the same problem...and he LOVES tomatoes.

So, I need your help.

*****

my first suggestion is to get a second opinion from another gastroenterologist since telling folks with diverticulitis that small seeds such as raspberry and strawberry and tomato are forbidden is a bit out of the loop these days. And by all means do some Googling to confirm that.( smile)

That being said, there are some options. One is to grow what are called parthenocarpic varieties, such as Oregon Spring and several other parthenocarpic ones that were developed at Oregon State.

A parthenocarpic variety is best grown where Springs are cool and normal self pollenization is hard to accomplish. With these varieties fertilization is accmplished without pollen falling to the tip of the stigma, so there are no seeds in the fruits for most of the season.

The down side is that flesh can be a bit mushy, occasionally, and also fruits can be a bit malformed, and this occurs b'c fruit development is not normal.

You can grow these in Alabama as well, and still get fruits with little to no seeds.

And the suggestion of using meaty tomato varieties is a good one and many paste types are very low on seeds.

But I do encourage you to get a second opinion and/or Google, as I did above.

Carolyn

Blossom Set is supposed to produce tomatoes with fewer seeds. I used it once a long time ago and recall that there were few seeds.

Zeuspaul

Only almost seedless tomato I know of that's worth it's weight as far as taste, is OPALKA - easy to just scrape seeds out (if there are a few).

I've cut them open and found literally 4 seeds inside before...

My grandmother had the same problem and loved our family's heirloom, which is called Tomato Rocky. Well, that's what we call it. It's easy enough to understand how everyone else ended up just calling it Rocky. Anyway this tomato has an intense flavor and is a large meaty plum. It's very easy to remove the seeds. The main disadvantage to Tomato Rocky is that it can be picky about climate. It has flopped for me for years, now, in my native NJ, where indeed we first acquired it. It hasn't done very well for us here in OK. But we see rave reviews from the Midwest. So you could try it. I believe Tomato Growers supply sells seed.

Another option is Polish Pastel, which is a slightly smaller, but no less indeterminant plum tomato. Fruit is yellow/orange/pink (pastel. This one hasn't produced very well for me here during the hottest part of our OK summers. But does come on well in the fall. I here, up North, it produces all summer. Anyway Polish Pastel has the fewest seeds of any tomato I've ever seen. So few, in fact, that I need to get on the stick and save more seeds! In spite of its drawbacks in our climate, this is one tomato my wife asks for every year, because it keeps a LONG time without refrigeration and is good for cooking.

George
Tahlequah, OK

I'm no expert here, but... Tomato seeds are so soft and slippery in their coating, they seem like they would be a less likely candidate to cause diverticulitis problems.

And, yeah, there are many tomatoes with few seeds. You should easily be able to just scoop them out of the gel pocket.

I too have that health problem. I read somewhere that tomato seeds don't really harm the condition, as was previously believed.
Anyway, I eat all the tomato seeds that find their way into my mouth, and have never noticed any adverse effects.
But, to be cautious, the above suggestion of eating Opalka and scraping out the few seeds seems to be a reasonable one.

My dad was suffering from the same thing. It was very odd and contradictory that a person needs fiber to help the intestine do its job and yet the selfsame person had to avoid seeds etc. Two conflicting trains of thought, or just OTHER sources of fiber should be used?

I roll my eyes at the medical advice posted above in saying it is out of the loop to put patients on non seed diets when they have "pockets". Unless you have gone through the dizziness and soreness for days associated with diverticulitis until seeds or nuts are passed it would be good for some people to stay in the field they have degrees in.
Your physician is quite sound in his protocol.

To answer the question Peters Seeds does have seedless tomatoes in Oregon Spring. They are very nice and helpful people.
For a variety of flavor, I personally use some seeded tomatoes and take the seeds out. Azoykcha is a fine yellow that seeds in pockets. Rose (Amish) is very meaty like German Johnson but has seeds in cells and Red Pear tomatoe I use a grapefruit spoon to remove them after slicing.

There are diets which help diverticulitis in healing. I would recommend www.earthclinic.com and looking there for home remedies as many are good and work.
Pockets are not fun for those who have had them develop and small seeds do cause discomfort as they seem to fester inside as low fiber diets lodge hard particle like even nuts inside them.

God bless you and I hope that it all works out for your family:)

Here is a link that might be useful: Seedless Tomatoes

I roll my eyes at the medical advice posted above in saying it is out of the loop to put patients on non seed diets when they have "pockets". Unless you have gone through the dizziness and soreness for days associated with diverticulitis until seeds or nuts are passed it would be good for some people to stay in the field they have degrees in.

*****

Starflakes, I wouldn't have posted what I did above if I hadn't had up close and personal experience with alternating diverticulosis and diverticulitis.

My mother had the same.

I listened to my gastroenterologist and what he advised and then did one heck of a lot of research online before I was convinced of the soundness of his advice.

Same thing with kidney stones. I've had three lithotripsies ( surgery to remove stones) for same and my latest urologist sugggested that the best way to prevent new stones was not to cut back on oxalate containing foods and Ca++ containing foods ( my stones were the common calcium oxalate type) as had been advised for years, but to drink drink drink as much fluids as I could every day.

That was 14 years ago and fingers crossed, no more stones.

In the Medical world suggested treatments do change as a result of new research.

Carolyn

I have a friend with the same issue and posted a similar thread a ways back. Carolyn suggested the same as she is here. I told my friend and he talked with his doctor about it confirming what Carolyn said. Having said that, his wife recently told me that he still avoids tomato seeds because of past problems. I guess he was miserable at one time and just cant overcome the fear of it happening again.

Starflake,
I roll my eyes over the different ways people interpret things written here.

The only medical advice I read in Carolyn's Feb 4th reply is the: "Get a second opinion from another gastroenterologist". Seems like pretty sage and rather innocuous advice to me -- regardless of what field one happens to have a degree in!!

Terry Light
Oak Hill, Virginia

Burpee now has seedless tomatoes,which are called sweet seedless

Burpee has seedless tomatoes from seed on amazon