We don’t plant enough seeds. There is magic in planting randomly collected seeds and seeing how they flourish, grow, and produce. Learning how to save tomato seeds is a simple and easy way to begin a seed planting adventure. It’s great for kids too!
One of my greatest joy’s in ninja gardening is planting seeds. A random seed here and there, from a dried clover flower, or chamomile flower, scattering the seeds from a daisy as I walk on the path. There are dozens of native wild flowers and plants that you can harvest and scatter seed from, just while walking.
Tomatoes are one of the gardener’s standby plants, at least if you’re warmer than a Zone four. Zone four, it takes a bit of greenhouse work to get them through the season. Saving your own seed, either from your own plants, or from a tasty Farmer’s Market purchased tomato, is a great way to save a few dollars on seeds next year. It’s also a great way to experiment, and maybe even breed your own tomatoes.
Note: the YouTube “hack” of planting an entire tomato slice to get tomatoes to grow is a bad gardening practice. Prick out individual seeds to direct plant, never plant the full slice as it will contribute to rot and damping off disease in an indoor pot.
How to Save Tomato Seeds:
First, choose a super ripe tomato, ideally from the farmer’s market. If it’s spring, like now, chose from a small cherry tomato or similar ripe tomato from the grocery store.
Farmer’s market tomatoes are picked riper than conventionally grown tomatoes, so they should have stronger plants and better germination. Farmer’s markets are also great sources, now, of heirloom tomatoes that will grow true to seed.
Store bought tomatoes are picked under ripe and ripe during transit, these tomato seeds may not germinate as well or produce as vigorous plants. Store tomatoes are also usually hybrids, so are great for experimentation, but the tomato they produce will NOT be the same as the store tomato you bought.
The riper and fresher your starting tomato the better.
Second, cut the tomato in half and squeeze all the gooey seeds out onto a small dish. Think of this as your petri dish, for that seed saving experiment. Add a small amount of warm water and lightly mix your seeds and their surroundings.
Set aside for two or three days, stirring twice a day to let the seeds ferment. Add additional warm water if necessary to keep them from drying out during this fermentation process.
On the third day, rinse the seeds well, in a small tea strainer. Place on a paper towel, and let dry.
Store the seeds, paper towel and all, in a labelled paper envelope. Place the paper envelope into your seed storage container, with a silica packet.
Why the Fermentation:
When considering how to save tomato seeds, fermenting them might seem like a weird idea. You may be wondering, won’t it go moldy? Yep, it might if you don’t stir it.
The fermentation removes the germination inhibition action of the gel surrounding the seeds. It also helps destroy pathogens, rusts, and fungus that may be naturally occurring on the seeds, and that could affect the plants negatively.
You can plant fresh tomato seeds, without fermenting. However, for storage, seed sharing, and other endeavors, you should ferment the seeds. Also, most heirloom tomatoes, at the farmer’s market or specialty store, are available in summer and fall, so it’s not usually the best time to plant new tomato plants.
Choosing Your Tomato Plants:
If you want to learn how to save tomato seeds to get the traits you want, or to stay true to a variety, read on. When growing your own tomato plants for seeds, make sure to only keep strong heirloom, or open pollinated, plants. You don’t want to save seed from the droopy, unhappy little tomato you’ve been babying all season. Unless you’re zone three or colder, then when you get a tomato, save that seed! Maybe the next plants will be a bit hardier and quicker fruiting.
Most tomatoes are self fertile, and will self pollinate. Where you get naturally occurring cross pollination is when the bees and flies get involved.
There are two ways to save pure seed. First, only grow one type of heirloom or open pollinated tomato, and save your own seed every year to perpetuate it. Or, when growing multiple varieties of tomato, you can isolate a flower cluster with a small bag of light fabric, shake the flower cluster daily to enable self pollination. Do this with tomatoes on at least four plants of the same species to help preserve genetic diversity in your seedlings.
If you want to deliberately cross pollinate a tomato, isolate two clusters of flowers on both plants. Take one or two flowers from one plant, and use them to hand pollinate flowers on the other plant. Re-isolate the pollinated cluster of flowers afterward. Do this from plant A, to plant B, with one pair of isolated clusters. Then, do it from plant B to plant A with the other two isolated clusters. This will help ensure vigorous seeds.
Back to You:
What seeds have you saved in your yard? What is your favorite tomato variety?