Seed Saving: How to Save Tomato Seeds
In part 5 of our seed saving series, we’re going to cover how to save tomato seeds. Tomatoes are a fun crop to grow, and with some basic knowledge they are easy to save seeds from, so you can have your favorite varieties year after year.
Saving seeds not only saves money, it is how our grandparents preserved all of the wonderful heirloom varieties that we still grow today! When you save your own seeds from the plants that did best each year, the vegetables will gradually become more adapted to your area.
To learn more about saving tomato seeds, read on!
How to Save Tomato Seeds
Step 1. For the best results, start with open pollinated or heirloom tomato seeds
Step 2. To keep your variety pure, you may want to cover the tomato flowers with a blossom bag before the flowers open. This will prevent insects from accidentally crossing different tomato varieties
Step 3. To save tomato seeds, pick a fully ripe fruit. Slice the tomato in half and scrape out the seeds with a butter knife or a spoon.
Step 4. Allow the tomato seeds to ferment at room temperature for 2-3 days to separate the seeds from the pulp.
Step 5. After 2-3 days, wash the seeds and remove any that float. The good seeds will sink to the bottom of the bowl.
Step 6. To save tomato seeds for next year, thoroughly dry the seeds at ro0m temperature and store in a paper envelope. Stored correctly, tomato seeds will last 5-8 years.
Saving Seeds From Tomatoes
Tomatoes have perfect flowers, meaning each flower has male and female parts and does not rely on insects or wind transferring pollen from another flower.
Most modern tomato varieties can be grown right next to each other and will not cross.
Exceptions include varieties with double flowers, currant tomatoes and some potato-leaf types such as Brandywine. These can sometimes be crossed by insects. Growing them farther apart or covering plants or flower clusters with fine mesh to keep out insects will prevent these varieties from crossing. Organza craft bags are great for this!
The Seed Savers Exchange offers tomato blossom blossom bags that work the same way: https://www.seedsavers.org/category/seed-saving-tools.
To bag tomatoes, find a flower cluster that is completely closed. Place the flower cluster inside the blossom bag and pull the drawstring snug against the stem. The idea is to prevent insects from visiting the flowers when they are open. This will ensure your tomato varieties remain pure!
Once the flowers have dried out and the stem sets fruit, you can remove the blossom bag and tie a ribbon or string loosely around that stem to mark it for seed saving.
Saving Tomato Seeds
To save tomato seeds, harvest seeds from fully ripe tomatoes. A tomato seed is enclosed in a jelly-like sack with chemicals that keep it from sprouting inside the moist tomato. Tomato seeds are normally fermented to remove this jelly.
Slice the tomato in half and scrape out the seeds. If you are already chopping up tomatoes to use, you can scrape up the seeds left on your cutting board, just make sure to separate varieties!
Place the seeds in a dish. Seeds that don’t have much juice around them, such as romas, should have a tiny bit of water added. Let them sit out and ferment on the counter for 2-3 days, until mold develops on top of the liquid.
Fill the bowl most of the way with water and swish the seeds around to separate them from the pulp.
Pour off or scoop out the mold and any floating seeds. The good seeds will sink to the bottom of the dish. You can do this numerous times to get the tomato seeds as clean as you would like.
Rinse the seeds in a fine mesh strainer and spread them out on a dry dish or paper towel.
To save tomato seeds for next year, make sure they are completely dry. Tomato seeds will last 5-8 years.
Saving Seeds From Hybrids
To save tomato seeds, pick an open pollinated or heirloom variety.
Saving seeds from open pollinated (“OP”) varieties will ensure that you get consistent results when saving tomato seeds for next year. You can save seeds from a hybrid(“F1”), but the resulting tomatoes may have variations and won’t necessarily look like the tomato you started with.
Varieties marked “heirloom” are normally open pollinated and will breed true. The term “heirloom” refers to a variety that has been passed down for generations. That means that gardeners like you have been saving tomato seeds from these varieties for decades, if not centuries. Pretty cool!
I suggest only saving seeds from tomatoes you grew yourself or know the origin of – accidentally saving seeds from a genetically engineered tomato, which have been on the market off and on, could land you a lawsuit! Organically grown tomatoes are not genetically engineered, but may be hybrids that won’t breed true.
You can find out more about saving seeds from hybrids here!
Sources For Open Pollinated Tomato Seeds
The bowl above contains some of my favorite heirloom tomato varieties: Black Cherry, Gold Nugget, Gardeners Delight, Sweetie and Super Snow White.
As mentioned earlier, to save tomato seeds you should stick with open pollinated varieties that will breed true.
These are my long-time favorites for acquiring fun new tomato seeds! Baker Creek has the most unique tomato seed offerings. Fedco is cheaper but doesn’t have as many open pollinated choices. Azure offers several brands of seeds.
You can find more of our articles on Seed Saving from different veggies here!
Simple Seed Saving
We now have a special ONLINE COURSE available just for BEGINNING SEED SAVERS!
Many of the heirloom vegetable varieties we use today have been passed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years. Some have been passed down for thousands!
Sadly, seed saving is becoming a lost art, and our unique varieties are in danger of going extinct!
Simple Seed Saving will take you step-by-step through everything you need to know to save tomato seeds and more than 20 other common vegetables. The course is concise, easy to follow, and can be completed in just a couple hours.
It includes handy seed saving reference charts and printable seed packets.
You can read all about the course here!
Happy Seed Saving!
-Kait
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