How To Save Tomato Seeds For Next Year

Saving tomato seeds to plant in your garden starts with choosing the right tomatoes.

Open-Pollinated

You will want to ensure they are open-pollinated and not hybrid. Open-pollinated tomatoes have the same characteristics as the parents and will pass on the same genetics. 

A classic example is heirloom tomatoes, the first open-pollinated tomatoes. Their seeds have been saved and used for generations to create homogeneous tomatoes.

Hybrid

Hybrid tomatoes are genetically engineered and cross-pollinated by humans. They will not produce true-to-type vegetables.

This would include popular breeds like Early Girl, Better Boy, and Sun Golds. Google the name If you’re unsure.

Selecting the Tomatoes

Selecting tomatoes for tomato seed saving does not stop at choosing the heirloom variety. You should carefully select and preserve the tomato seeds from the best plants to produce the best heirloom variety. By the best plants, we mean the healthiest plants with the largest, tastiest, and most vibrant tomatoes.

If you have a pair of tomato plants where one is weak and the other healthy, choose a tomato from the latter. The sickly one could have weak genes that you should not multiply. You want the best genes. Similarly, select tomatoes in their prime, not ones that are not over and under-ripe, diseased, and oddly shaped.

Also, collect healthy tomatoes from different plants to maintain good genetic diversity and enjoy the health benefits of the tomatoes. 

Once you have your selected tomatoes, it’s time to start seed saving.

What You Will Need:

• Tomatoes
• Knife
• Cutting Board
• Mason Jar
• Water
• Non-coated Paper Plate
• Wire mesh sieve
• Envelope or seed storage container

Step 1: Collect the Seeds 

Keeping everything sanitary is crucial, so wash your hands and the tomatoes. Now, cut the tomatoes in half horizontally from the stalk to the blossom end.

Scoop out the pulp and the seeds using a spoon and place them in a mason jar. Don’t throw away the remaining tomatoes, as you can cook with them. 

Step 2: Ferment the Pulpy Seed

Tomato seeds have a gel-like substance surrounding them that inhibits germination. To prevent damage, the gel coating needs to be removed naturally through fermentation.

Secure a paper towel or coffee filter on top of the jar with a rubber band. Avoid adding water, and place the jar away from sunlight in a warm environment at 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Give the seeds at least four days to ferment. If your house is warm, it might take less than four days for the seeds to ferment, so monitor the jar. 

Step 3: Check on the Fermentation

Check on your seeds every 24 hours. If a slight opaque slick or a white coating has formed on the pulp, that is mold. Stir the liquid to disperse the mold.

You will know the fermentation is complete once the jar is bubbly or the seed has settled to the bottom. That is when you need to start cleaning the seeds, or they may accidentally germinate. 

Step 4: Separate the Seeds 

Spoon out bubbly liquid from the jar until only seeds are left. Pour water into the jar up to three-quarters, cover it with a lid, and shake it vigorously. This will help separate the seeds from the flesh and remove unwanted coverings from the seeds.

Allow the seeds to settle at the bottom and pour out the water. Discard any seeds that are floating as they are not suitable for planting.

Step 5: Clean the Seeds

Add water to the jar again, strain the seed mixture into a colander, and rinse the seeds well under running water. Remove any pulp bits and mold so that only clean seeds remain.

Step 6: Dry the Seeds

After rinsing the seeds, spread them to dry on a surface that allows some air circulation, like a non-coated paper plate. This paper plate makes it easier to tell when they are dry. You can also use a fan to speed up the drying.

When the seeds are halfway dry, gently stir them to prevent them from clumping. Do not expose the seeds to the sun or use any heating device as dormancy will set in. The seed-drying process can take as long as 10 days.

You can also save tomato seeds without fermenting to avoid the days-long process of filtering, drying, and storing.

It begins with selecting a ripe and juicy tomato. The tomato can be organically grown or purchased from a grocery store. If you get one from a farmers' market, verify it is not a hybrid variety. Next, prepare your tools: a knife, a spoon, and paper towels.

Any paper may do, but kitchen paper towels are thick, absorbent, and perfect. Non-coated paper plates work great as well. Before you do anything, label the paper towel with the variety and date. Then, cut the tomato vertically into halves and remove the seeds using a spoon to scatter over the paper towels.

You can use a single layer or fold the paper towels for multiple layers. The latter is better at soaking all the moisture. 

Growing Tomato Seeds Saved on Paper Towels

Before you plant the seeds, you should cut the paper towels with seeds into little squares. Plant the square paper towel in the potting mix, burying it a little. Keep the seeds moist, and in a week or two, you will see the seedlings emerging.

The paper will decompose over time. If it does not, you can remove it during transplanting.

Once they have developed two true leaves, the tomato seedling should be transplanted into pots. Cultivate the seedlings in a greenhouse or under fluorescent bulbs until you have to transfer them to their final growing area. If, at this stage, the plants become larger than their present pots, you may have to repot them.

Proper storage helps preserve the tomato seeds, and to do that, ensure your seeds are bone dry. Then, transfer them to a small spice jar or envelope and label them with the type and date. 

Your seed containers should be kept from direct sunlight in a dry and temperature-controlled area. If you follow these seed storage tips, your seeds will remain intact and could be planted even after 2 years.

If you want your seeds to be viable for long, ensure they are thoroughly dry and kept in an air-sealed plastic box. After that, store the box in a fridge or a freezer. It's possible to keep your seeds for five years, but you should check their viability before planting.

Saving tomato seeds to plant in the future is better when the tomatoes are slightly overripe. This means the tomatoes should be harvested a little later than if you were harvesting for consumption.

The extra time allows the seeds to mature inside the tomato. Here is how you will know when to pick the tomatoes.

Color

Slightly overripe red tomato varieties such as Beefsteak or Brandywine have a uniform deep red color throughout the fruit. The skin does not have green or yellow patches, indicating that the fruit has not fully ripened.

The bright shades of red mean that the tomato has fully attained its nutritional and genetic potential, which plays a major role in ensuring the seeds in the fruit are viable. As for yellow or orange tomatoes, the quality of fruit must meet the required standard of maturity of the specific variety.

Texture

Tomatoes soften as they mature and have a smooth, glossy appearance. For viable seeds, the tomatoes should be perfectly soft and not mushy. You can test for the softness by pressing the skin of a tomato.

The tomatoes are ready for harvesting, and the seeds have everything needed for successful germination if the skin breaks easily. If the tomato feels firm, it’s not fully ripe, and the seeds may still be underdeveloped.

Timing

It’s imperative for tomato harvesting and seed saving to monitor your tomatoes when the growing season is about to end. This is because tomatoes tend to over-ripen rapidly if the climatic conditions are warm and dry.

In contrast, the fruit may take longer to become overripe in cooler regions. It may be better to pick the fruit before the frost settles.

While it is possible to save seeds from tomatoes purchased at a grocery store, that may not be the best approach. Those tomatoes are mostly hybrids, a combination of two varieties of tomatoes. Tomatoes from the seeds of these tomatoes have varying characteristics that are not the best.

They might come out in shapes, sizes, colors, and tastes different from their parents. Additionally, supermarket tomatoes were bred for long shelf life and to withstand transportation. They are unyielding with tough skins, ideal for traveling long distances.

They have a uniform ripening gene that reduces the flavor. This is why many people do not consider the taste when buying tomatoes in supermarkets. Ideally, you want juicy and meaty tomatoes with thinner skins to enjoy biting into.

Besides, tomatoes available in supermarkets are usually bred for growing in greenhouses or outdoors in a tropical climate different from yours if you purchase in winter. The possibility of the tomatoes maturing deliciously is slim to none under different growing conditions. 

Tomato seeds taken from a tomato can be directly planted in the ground, but that might produce high-quality fruits. Here’s why:

Seeds Are Enclosed in Gelatinous Coating

The seeds of ripened tomatoes are wrapped inside the flesh, which may cause germination issues. They may also contain bacteria and fungal spores, preventing them from sprouting.

Therefore, treatment is necessary, where the seeds are fermented to remove the pulp and wash away the remaining dirt. This eliminates the pathogens, making the seeds healthier and germination possible. 

Low Germination Rate

Tomato seeds must be allowed to dry for a while before planting. If fresh seeds taken directly from the tomato are planted, they will be too wet and unsuitable for successful germination. Moreover, fresh seeds have not undergone the standard drying and dormant phase, which usually enhances their viability and longevity.

After cleaning the seeds, let them dry completely. When dry, keep them in a cold and dry area for a few weeks before planting. This procedure enables the seeds to reach a resting period, which is crucial for sprouting into seedlings.

Resulting Tomatoes Are Prone to Diseases

When you plant seeds directly without cleaning or fermentation, the pathogen could enter the soil, and the resulting tomatoes might be diseased with blight or fusarium wilt.

You minimize the risk of an outbreak by ensuring they are thoroughly cleaned, dried, and fermented.

Planting tomatoes is as much a part of cultivating tomato seeds. You should save your seeds because:

Cut Costs

You can harvest a few dozen tomatoes from the heirloom seeds you saved. You would have to pay so much more to obtain the same amount of tomatoes if you are buying. Additionally, the cost of everything, including seeds, is rising with inflation. 

They aren’t the priciest items you could find, though economized cash could go toward buying hybrid seeds and other new varieties you’d like to test. Heirloom and open-pollinated seeds can be planted for several years, which is beneficial economically over time.

Quality

Vegetables grown in your backyard from the saved seeds are always better than any supermarket offerings. Modern industrial farming prioritizes aesthetics and longevity of produce over improvements in flavor and quality. 

Perhaps for this reason, commercial crops are artificially polished with wax and contain preservatives and unhealthy doses of pesticides that affect crop quality and have been linked to increased risk of cancer and diabetes.

Organic

Cultivating crops for your seeds means you don’t have to worry about how and where they were sourced and whether they have been treated with harmful chemicals. 

Although commercially grown seed is regulated to some extent, they can still be obtained from herbicide-treated crops. Most seeds are treated with chemicals like insecticides and fungicides before reaching the end-users.

Food for Pollinators

Insects that pollinate plants, such as monarch butterflies and honeybees, are essential for food provision. They assist in the fertilization of plants, which in turn produce edible fruits, seeds, and vegetables. These crops only exist because of the pollinators. 

Thus, we need to protect the population of these beneficial insects by saving and planting more heirloom seeds. The nectar from these plants supplies nutrients to these insects and ensures their survival and, in turn, our food security. 

Preservation

The hybrid crop is a billion-dollar industry and is booming. The hybrid crop is a billion-dollar industry and is booming. As the market continues to see an ever-increasing supply of hybrid varieties, seeds for old strains of heirloom and open-pollinated varieties are gradually vanishing. According to some, seeds that have existed for over 50 years are termed heirlooms and might substitute even older varieties. 

Many vegetable and fruit cultivars will no longer be available for farmers and be a thing of the past if their seeds are saved and preserved for future generations.