I hope you are enjoying a wonderful tomato harvest and I really hope you grew a few heirloom tomatoes this year. It's time to think about saving their seeds for next year's garden. You don't even have to sacrifice eating them to save the seeds. Isn't that great?
To get the most viable tomato seeds, you need to ferment them. It's a bit of a messy, smelly process, but it's worth the effort. It's easy, too. I've even provided pictures. (Thankfully they aren't scratch and smell.)
Even if you didn't grow your own heirloom tomatoes, you can always save seed of heirlooms you purchased. I won't tell, if you don't.
Photo: © Marie Iannotti
Comments
we have saved seeds many times, but i dont think we ever took so many pains to do it. we always just lay the seed and pulp on paper towels, let them dy, then pick the seeds off and put them in a baggie. we label them so we know which variety we’ve saved. can you explain why they have to ferment? i have never heard that before, there must be some scientific reason for it.
Tomato seeds and a few other high moisture vegetables have growth inhibitors in the gel that surrounds the seeds, to prevent the seeds from sprouting while they are still inside the tomato. Although sometimes they do and it’s an odd thing to slice into. The fermentation destroys the inhibitors while preparing the seeds for storage.
Other people have said they never bother with the fermenting and have successfully saved seed. I tried an experiment a few years ago and I had better viability with the fermented seeds, but many of the non-fermented did sprout. I would just say to save more seed, if you aren’t going through this process, for insurance. There are certainly plenty of seeds in a tomato.
i think ill try this method, maybe ill get a better germination rate. you learn something new everyday! thanks for the info.