Grow Your Tomatoes

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Save your tomato seeds

One great thing about open-pollinated (heirloom) tomato plants is that you can save the seeds from the fruit and grow them next year. Seeds saved from hybrids will not produce the same tomatoes the next year, because hybrids are unstable and must be re-hybridized every year by new parent plants.

Harvest specimens

Choose the best fruits from the best plants, so your seeds will have good genetic material. Harvest seeds when the fruit is fully ripe.

	Slice the tomato in half, in the middle of the fruit between the stem and blossom end. You should see the cavities containing the seeds covered in gel. This gel is a germination inhibitor, which means that it stops the seeds from sprouting inside the fruit. This gel will need to be fermented to remove it from the seeds.
	Scoop out the seeds in their protective gel. Put them in a glass container such as a jar or cup.
	Add some water to the seed/gel mixture, to avoid evaporation of all the moisture. You want the seeds to be sitting in liquid when they are done fermenting, not sitting in dry, hard muck.
Label the container with the variety name (not shown in photos). You don't want your seed to get mixed up with other varieties. Place in a cool, out-of-the-way area to let the mixture ferment. You may want to loosely cover the opening in the container with paper towels to keep foreign debris out.
	Check every few days. Depending on conditions, your seeds could be done fermenting in a few days or a few weeks. Usually it takes only a week or two.
	When the seeds are ready, the surface of the mixture should be covered in mold. Depending on what mold spores land on your seeds, your mold may be a dull color or it may be brightly multicolored like the mold in the photo. Do not over-ferment. When you see mold covering the surface, it's time to clean the seeds and prepare them for storage.
	Scoop off the mold and discard. Remove any chunks of mold or tomato debris that does not contain seed.
	Pour seeds into a colander. Remove any bits of tomato by hand, so you are left with only seeds and pulp.
	Rinse seeds thoroughly.
	Spread out the seeds on a plate and place in a cool, dry, and preferably sunny place. Let them dry for several days - trapped-in moisture shortens the storage life of tomato seeds.
When the seeds are dry, place them in an airtight container such as a Ziploc bag. To keep seeds away from pests such as mice, put the Ziploc in a glass jar with a lid. Label the bag/jar with the variety name. Tomato seeds last up to 10 years and sometimes even longer. Over time, viability will decrease and fewer seeds will germinate, but when stored properly, your seeds will remain good for years.