How to master simple tomato seed saving.
Simple seed saving from open pollinated tomatoes, or heirloom varieties is vital for seed sovereignty. However, it’s also one of the most satisfying things to do. Any heirloom seed collected from your garden has a kind of memory of being grown in your gardens conditions. The resulting plant from your own seeds are stronger, and more vigorous.
Why bother saving tomato seeds?
Aside from being independent from massive seed corporations producing patented seed we must constantly buy, I prefer supporting smaller independent producers. Saving your own seed may seem counter intuitive if you want to do that. However, I’m on a budget, so when I save seed like this not only do I get to share it but my very limited budget means that I get to buy more new varieties from the smaller seed suppliers. This extends my collection because I do like to grow a lot of different tomato varieties each year.
I’m not actually a huge fan of raw tomatoes, so I’m constantly searching for the ones that I particularly like. Saving seed from Brad’s tomatoes means I get to try all the others he has too. With extra seed that you’ve saved, you also get to do swaps with other growers too. A few years ago gardening suddenly became very popular, and seed demand went through the roof. Likewise, I live in an area prone to flooding, so when friends of mine lost their collection, it felt good knowing that replacing the whole lot was something they didn’t have to worry about. I had enough in mind to cover most of what they needed.
Why do we ferment tomato seeds?
You need something to ferment your seeds in for a few days. This is because these tomato seeds are covered in jelly which protects them. Nature does this as it wants animals to eat the tomato fruits and have the seeds protected as they go through their digestive system. They are then spread unharmed by the animal, or have sat all winter until next Spring when they can sprout. By fermenting the seeds, we are getting rid of this jelly so that the seeds don’t mould, or start sprouting too soon.
What you’ll need
You don’t even need a great deal of equipment to save tomato seeds either. Although, some of this is optional but you definitely will need a water proof vessel to put your seeds in. A small glass is great for a few small tomatoes, or a bowl if saving a lot of seed. Remember to not mix your seeds.
You will also need:
A knife.
For large beef tomatoes I use the handle of a teaspoon to get the seeds out. In the video below you’ll see I have a special one for just this job. My oldest son went through a stage of bending my spoons and prove to be very useful for these big tomatoes.
I have this little tea strainer to catch my seeds when we go to rinse them off a little.
A saucer with a piece of paper for drying your seeds.
Later a pen to write down the name of the variety on your paper,
The bowl is optional, but if you’re like me and you’ve got absolutely no dexterity what you don’t want to do is all of this hard work and then up with your seeds down the drain.
Because, trust me I’ve done that, and it’s really annoying. Especially when you’ve only got a few tomatoes that you’ve decided were fantastic enough to save the seed from. Then those seed end up down the drain because you missed everything, so don’t be like me, you know think instead.
Method for saving tomato seeds.
All we’re going to do is take our Tomatoes, cut in half, and squeeze the seeds in a small water proof vessel. All those lovely seeds will go in the bottom and then cover the seeds with a couple of inches of water. Place them out of the way for a few days on a kitchen counter top, or in my case, the window cill. After a few days you’ll see the water become cloudy, maybe frothy on top, and the seeds in the bottom. Any seeds that float to the surface are usually not viable. You can give the seeds a gentle stir, and if they appear to have separated from the gel, it’s time to rinse.
Have your saucer with labeled kitchen roll ready to tip out your cleaned seeds on to. Using a small sieve, rinse the seeds well with cold water. You can add the back to the container, and add more water to see if any float after cleaning. If they do, remove them. If you don’t have a very small sieve, such as a tea strainer, keep the seeds in the bottom of the glass. Add plenty of clean water, swill, let the seeds settle and carefully pour off the water. Repeat until the water is clean. Tip out the seeds on to the kitchen paper, and spread out. I like the move mine for a few days to prevent sticking as they dry. Make sure your seeds are fully dry before storing in paper, or plastic envelopes. Don’t forget to label and note the year saved.
Can I save seed from F1 varieties?
A question often asked is: can I save, and grow seed from F1 varieties? An F1 is a first cross hybrid. For the most part, there is nothing stopping you saving the seed, and growing it. However, it’s very unlikely that the plants will grow true to the parent plant but you probably will get some that do. Especially with older more established ones. It’s how early open pollinated varieties are actually created in the first place, so in a crisis better to grow out those seed than nothing at all. Some of them are not going to taste good, and some won’t produce good plants at all. But there are those that do, so if you wanted to perpetuate those seeds then you would take the closest one to the parent plant. This is what breeders do to lock down good genetics, and keep saving seed.
Recommended seed suppliers.
I am in no way affiliated with the following suppliers, but I have bought from all of them, and grown their seed with great success. I’m not sure that Vertiloom ships to the UK anymore, but for anyone reading from mainland EU this site is a great resource.
UK
Tomato revolution–
Real seeds
Mainland EU
USA
Brad Gates Wild Boar Farms
Baker Creek Rare Seeds
You can see my video to go with this blog here-