Harvesting tomato seeds

Saving tomato seeds from your tomato plants is easy (not to mention cheaper than buying seeds or expensive plants every spring).

First, some details

~ non-hybrid tomatoes produce "offspring" that may have slight variations - also known as open-pollinated or heirloom tomatoes - these are the seeds you want to harvest

~ hybrid tomatoes produce "offspring" that won't necessarily look or taste like the parent tomato - these are typically the tomato seeds sold at seed stores, and or the ones we buy at the grocery store - these are NOT the seeds you want to harvest - although you can harvest these, there is no control what the "offspring" will look or taste like

~ while all tomatoes are self-pollinating and will retain their individual traits, a few, like "currant" or "potato-leaf" (like "Brandywine") can also be cross-pollinated by insects (bees), and therefore will "co-mingle" their traits - NOT what you want!
Therefore, if you're NOT growing currant or potato leaf types, you can be assured that you are saving seed that will be just like (well, close) to the parent.
If you ARE growing currant of potato leaf types, you need to prevent cross-pollination. Too late for this harvest, but in future gardens, when the flowers of the currant / potato leaf plants pop out, cover just the stem where the flowers are with cheesecloth or spun-polyester fiber (you could cover the entire plant, but then the rest of the non-flowering leaves wouldn't get enough sun - you just want to cover the actual flowers). When the flowers start developing into fruit, remove the cover.



~ for seed saving, you need fruits that are thoroughly ripe and soft.

~ you'll notice when you cut open a tomato, the seeds are enclosed in a gel sac. To harvest, you'll need to remove the seeds from the sac, and you'll need to put them through a fermentation process, which will destroy any seed-borne diseases

The Process:

~Rinse the fruit
~Cut it in half across the middle - not the stem end
~Squeeze seeds (gently) and juice into a glass or plastic container with the label of what type seed they are
~Fill the containers the rest of the way with water

~Set them OUT OF DIRECT SUN in an area where you won't be bothered by the ripening odor or fruit flies - I put mine in an unused section of the greenhouse - fruit flies can have a field day in there...
~Check everyday to make sure there is enough water for the seeds to float - especially in warmer temp days of late summer or in the southern states, the water can quickly evaporate, and you've potentially lost your harvest
~Within 3-5 days, the seed mixture will have a whitish mold on the surface

~Scrape off the white mold with a spoon, being careful not to remove seeds.
~Refill the container with water and stir
~At this point, the good seeds will sink to the bottom
~Pour off the floating seeds (effectively, "dead") and the pulp
~Repeat this process until the remaining good seeds (that stay on the bottom) are clean
~Pour the cleaned seeds through a fine (small holed) strainer
~Rinse and drain

~Place seeds onto a plate (I use old cookie sheets)
~Allow them to dry for one to three days - if humid, it'll take up to 3 days
~BUT! when drying, KEEP THEM OUT of direct sun
~While they are drying, stir them a couple times a day, to make sure don't stick together and that they are completely dry

~Place the seeds in individually labeled airtight and THOROUGHLY CLEAN containers, like glass canning jars - I suggest that you don't reuse jars like mayo or other food jars - there may be traces of food left, you'll end up contaminating your harvest - best to err on side of caution for all the work you've done and just use canning jars - I've also used baby food jars, but if you have a lot of seeds, they can quickly fill up and you'll need multiple labeled jars
~Store the seed jars in a cool, dry, dark shelf

~Good planting to ya next spring - and let me know how they did!