How to Save Tomato Seeds

Saving seeds is your first step to food security and independence. In this post we’ll go over how to save tomato seeds.

Your tomato plants have given you an entire summer of produce.

However, the leaves are starting to brown, you’re not getting any more blossoms, and the days are getting shorter.

As you’re wrapping up your last canning jars of spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce, it’s a good time to start planning for next year’s garden.

Saving seeds is an incredibly empowering act.

It’s taking the power from big Ag, chemical companies, distributers and grocery stores and provides you and your family with an endless supply of local (how much more local can you get than your backyard!), organic, nutrient-dense food that’s been carefully chosen to suit your soil and micro-climate.

It’s your first step into a self-sufficiency rebellion. Want to really start a revolution? Save more than you need and give some away to friends and family!

If you can’t tell, I get really passionate about the possibilities of saving seeds!

If you’ve been following my blog at all you’ll know about my love affair with tomatoes. The first vegetable I ever grew was a tomato plant, and it grew so tall it easily outgrew its cage, passed me in height and then fell over.

Tomatoes are the best vegetable for the beginning homesteader.

They require very little babysitting, and there’s nothing more soul-satisfying that picking a ripe tomato off the vine and eating it, still warm from the sun.

And you made that!!

Nutritional Info on Tomatoes

Now that I’m focusing on providing my family with healthy, organic foods, I’m researching and learning all about what goes into our meals.

I wasn’t raised on good nutrition, so I’m a little behind the learning curve.

However, when I find out that something I already love, actual loves me back…well, it doesn’t get much better than that, does it?

According to SELFNutritionData, one cup of raw, ripe tomatoes contains 32% of your daily recommended allowance of Vitamin C, and 25% of your Vitamin A.

It also contains 15% of your daily recommended amount of Vitamin K, and 10% of your Potassium!

For more information on how to grow tomatoes, check out my Beginner’s Guide to Growing Tomatoes.

When to Save Tomato Seeds

Seeds can be harvested from any fully ripened tomato. And each tomato has hundreds of seeds, so you may only need to pick one or two ripe fruit.

When picking which seeds to save, choose tomatoes from your best looking plant – the tallest, the healthiest, the one that produced the most.

In this way, you’re selecting the characteristics you want to reproduce in the next generation.

After a few years of this, you will be creating a tomato variety that is naturally adapted to grow the best on your property, in your conditions. Can’t beat that!

While technically you can save seeds from a hybrid plant, it’s not recommended.

A hybrid plant is one that has been genetically altered by humans to combine the best traits of two different varieties of plant.

The first generation hybrid will usually be very vigorous and produce a lot, the next generation is usually unstable and weak.

If you want to regrow the type of tomato you had this year, next year, you’ll want to start with heirloom plants.

Heirloom tomato varieties have been naturally pollinated, and the children plants will reflect their parents.

When a tomato ripens naturally, it falls off the vine and rots.

This rotting, or fermentation, is essential to the success of the seeds.

The fermentation process removes germination inhibitor – priming the seeds for germination in the spring.

How to Save Tomato Seeds

While you’re skinning and de-seeding tomatoes for canning or cooking, squeeze the seeds into a separate bowl for saving.

I love this process because it means even less is going to waste. The skins, however, can go to the compost bin.

I store my seeds in mason jars because I have dozens laying around, but any metal or glass container will do.

Fermentation

Do not add any additional water, as this can delay fermentation.

Simply cover your container full of seeds with a cloth or coffee filter.

Fermentation will release gases.

Leave the seeds alone to ferment for at least three days.

Removing the Seeds

Depending on how large your container is, you may need to transfer them to a larger container. 

Add three to four times the volume of water and let stand for a minute.

The pulpy, gelatinous goo will float to the top, where the viable seeds will sink to the bottom.

Simply pour off the liquid while saving the seeds.

Then in a sieve, rinse the seeds to remove any clinging gel.

Drying the Seeds

With your seeds fermented, and separated, place them on a paper towel, paper bag, or paper plate to dry.

Spread the seeds out with your finger to prevent clumping and let dry for five to six days or until they are dry enough to store.

Store in a cool, dark place until next Spring!

Check out my post on how to start seeds indoors, to ensure your best success when starting your seeds next year!