I love saving the seeds of heirloom plants.
In fact, it’s one of my favorite things! I could sing the praises of heirloom seeds all day long, folks. All. Day. Long.
How about their flavor? And variety? And the fact that they make us, their growers, self-reliant? We don’t have to depend on stores!
Then there’s the guaranteed non-GMO thing. And, of course, the stories behind heirloom seeds. (Here’s a story you’ll like: the story behind my family’s heirloom green beans.)
But back to saving seeds! You purchase the seeds once and then, because of the beauty of God’s design, you can save the seeds to plant year after year to feed your family. Didn’t I mention that heirloom seeds are awesome? They’re the ultimate in frugality (and preparedness).
Let’s talk about how to save tomato seeds, which are an excellent place to start if you’ve never done it before (or even if you have).
A Few Basics
Keep in mind, you can only save seeds from heirloom plants. Hybrid varieties will usually not grow and if they do, they won’t produce the same type of plant, if at all. For more info on this grab a free copy of my eBook: Heirloom Gardening Guide-Plant to Save Money.
Tomato seeds are excellent candidates for seed saving because, like beans, they’re a self-pollinated plant. Simply put, they don’t cross pollinate with other tomato species, so you can have 3 different varieties of tomatoes planted together and they won’t inner breed.
I always save more seed than I think I’ll need — in case I have to replant, or if the germination rate is low.
Learning how to save tomato seeds is a tad bit different than saving bean seed (you can learn how to save bean seed here). It requires a fermenting process.
Here’s how to save tomato seeds, step-by-step.
1. Select the plant.
Select the plant whose seeds you want to save. Choose one that’s free from disease and also a high producer.
2. Let a tomato get overripe.
Let a tomato on that plant get almost overripe. (You don’t want to save seed from an unripe tomato as the seeds will be little and unlikely to sprout.)
3. Scoop out the seeds.
Cut the tomato in half lengthwise. With your fingers or a spoon, scoop out the seeds along with the gelatinous membrane that surrounds them. Put them in a clean glass jar. I use a Fido jar without the rubber seal so I can close it, but a bit of air can still get inside. You can also use cheese cloth on top of a Mason jar or plastic wrap with holes poked in it.
4. Ferment the seeds.
Let the seeds sit for out for 3 to 5 days. Once every 24 hours, stir the seeds then put the lid back. If you see scum develop, you’re on the right track.
Be warned: the fermenting process can smell (another reason the Fido jar works well). You may want to set it in the garage.
During the fermentation, the seeds will separate from the germination-inhibiting gel surrounding them, as well as reduce the spread of any seed-borne diseases. The end result is that you’ll increase their germination rate the following spring and more likely get new tomato plants out of them. This process mimics nature; the seeds would either be eaten and passed through an animal or fall to the ground and rot.
5. Rinse and drain the healthy seeds.
When you begin to see the seeds separate from the gel and mold forms on top, place the seeds in a bowl of water. The healthy seeds will sink to the bottom. Rinse these seeds, removing any remaining gel or debris. Place the healthy seeds in a fine mesh sieve and let them drain. Then blot them dry with a clean cloth towel.
6. Dry out the seeds fully.
Place the seeds on a glass dish or plate, with a space between each seed so they’re not touching. Let them dry in a warm area out of direct sunlight for several days.
If the seeds have fermented too long and begin to sprout as they dry out, either plant them or throw them out. Either way, they’re no longer viable for seed saving at this point.
Seeds get damaged if they get hotter than 95 degrees Fahrenheit, so keep them out of the sun or hot areas of your home. If you experience high humidity, turn a fan blowing on low just over the seeds.
Throughout this time, check them regularly for any signs of mold or mildew. Also, especially in the beginning when they’re pretty wet, flip them over once or twice a day.
7. Save and store.
When fully dry, put them in a clean dry glass jar or envelope and store in a cool, dry, dark place until next planting season.
Be sure to label your jar or envelope with the particular variety of tomato — this comes in handy especially if you’re saving a few different types of tomato seed.
Do you know how to save heirloom tomato seeds? What varieties do you save?
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Well this explains my poor track record with saving tomato seeds. Thanks for these helpful tips! I will try again, would live to be able to do this.
We’ve done this before with our Cherokee purple seeds and I’ll probably be doing it again this year with our Bonnie Best. They seem to do very well as canned tomatoes and we like the flavor.
This technique works also with all those slimy melon seeds we hate to throw out. But if it’s middle of the growing season just bury that overripe puppy and it will sprout a new plant. This is how I console myself for letting organic heirloom produce go unused for too long. I just let it produce a bunch more produce for us.
Very informative article but could you kindly tell me where can I buy some heirloom or non GMO tomato seeds that may thrive in tropical climate. Thank you
I’m not sure on tropical varieties but BakerCreek Heirloom Seeds at http://www.rareseeds.com has some great all heirloom varieties.
First of all, there are no GMO tomato varieties! No GMO seeds are available to home gardeners and they are field crop seeds.
Second, hybrid seeds do grow just like any other seed. If not, there would be only one variety of every species because hybrids are where new varieties come from- even heirlooms! If you save seed from a commercial hybrid it is unlikely you will like the resulting plant, but it will grow. Commercial hybrids are very genetically diverse in their family tree and do not generally produce true to type. Some people grow out hybrids for some seasons trying to get them to stabilize.
Third, bees readily pollinate and cross pollinate tomatoes. Crosses are common and can be really fun actually. The resulting F1 hybrid of two heirloom varieties can be interesting and may someday become another heirloom variety. Read about how varieties began, such as Mortgage Lifter and Green Zebra. 99% of the time they start as accidental or purposeful hybrids.
To prevent bees cross pollinating your plants: grow only one variety every 50-100 feet, or save from the first fruit of each variety which were pollinated before bees were out much, or bag blossoms with something like a little jewelry net bag.
I get really sick of people saying hybrid seeds cannot be saved, are sterile, or make no seed. Hybrids are where almost every heirloom variety got its start. I am also sick of people thinking you can save heirlooms and they will come true to type. Maybe with tomatoes, but definitely not with cucurbits. And lastly I am sick of people not knowing what an heirloom means. It has the same meaning as heirloom jewelry or furniture; it is just old. It does not mean it is interesting colors or anything else. If saved without cross pollination it will come true to type. The correct term is open-pollinated but that has a wrong sound so I like purebred.
There may not be an GMO tomatoes on the market that we know of, but most corn seed is GMO due to the high pollination rates and that is available to the home gardener.
Second, I’ve tried regrowing hybrid seed and it has not performed and the fruit it did produce was not edible.
Heirloom seeds don’t come from hybrids. Hybrid seeds are created in a lab and were introduced to the public in the 1940’s. Open pollinated or heirloom seeds are cross pollinated to create new varieties and that is where all seeds came from. I think that may be what you meant.
If you don’t bag your cucumbers or squash family blossoms or hand pollinated when seed saving, then they won’t grow true to type due to the rate that they cross pollinate, which is why I said tomatoes and beans are easier to seed save from because you don’t have to worry about a high rate of cross pollination. Some growers say their tomatoes cross eventually, but others don’t have much crossing.
It sounds like you enjoy gardening and when first learning about heirlooms and hybrids it can get a bit confusing. I find it fascinating and enjoy sharing.
I am a farmer who grows heirlooms, saves seed and teaches seed saving classes. Your facts and terms are incorrect. If a Brandywine and Cherokee purple cross by bees and you grow the seed it is an F1 hybrid, for example. Hybrids were not created in labs! They just have 2 parent varieties! Commercial hybrids are harder to save seed from because their parents were hybrids too. You don’t understand what a hybrid is. It is like a labradoodle. Just 2 parent varieties. When you cross heirlooms those are hybrids too. Are you getting it?
There is some contamination of corn seed but not as much as some people assume.
You cannot bag cucurbits; you have to hand pollinate. Most tomato seed savers get 10-20% crossing when not bagging depending on amount of bees. The first fruits are usually self pollinated. I don’t bag tomatoes due to time. I do get some cross pollination -those are now F1 hybrids. If I like it and save seed and grow it again it is now F2 and so on. THAT is how new open pollinated varieties are made.
Tamara,
Thanks for explaining the hybrid’s further. I was using the term hybrid in relation to commercial hybrids. I’m curious, did you and your friends have success in stabilizing the hybrids when growing them out through several seasons? If so, how many growing seasons did it take? Thanks again.
It would be good to differentiate speaking of commercial hybrids. People start to have a very bad connotation of the word hybrid. Besides commercial hybrids are traditionally bred like any other they just have real specific recipes of crosses. Sungold is a good example. Several OP versions of it exist that have been grown out and dehybridized/stabilized but they IMO are not the same. I asked the tomato breeders I talk with as to why and what Sungolds parent varieties are. It is a secret but is a bunch of hybrids in the family tree. They have different traits too; probably some are not good eating but lend thick skin or crazy vigorousness to it.
According to some seed trade insiders like Steve Solomon, some hybrids in seed catalogs are not hybrids at all. I think this is happening less though now. Anyway, the variety’s family tree will be the factor of how long it takes to dehybridize or if it ever can be.
It is important to note that many people through poor understanding and bad information of hybrids assume that if we don’t save the heirlooms the human race will not survive. Some people get very religious about it; calling them sacred seeds. Purebreds of any species actually go against nature and are less vigorous. We should save seeds, as much diversity as possible but landraces are what will really ensure our survival. Search landrace articles at Mother Earth News by my friend Joseph Lofthouse.
I grow lots of heirlooms, some landraces and a few hybrids like broccoli and sweet corn. I believe in saving diversity. I like keeping heirlooms pure but I also feel letting crosses naturally happen and saving the most vigorous will lead to producing food in our climate changed world.
Very interesting comments regarding hybrids. Apparently my grandparents were very fortunate when i was growing up a very VERY poor boy in Arkansas since we never ever purchased seeds yet, we saved seeds every year. This seed saving went on for at least over 100 years as my Grandpa used the absolute same seeds from plants that my great g-pa used in the 1800’s. We always had massive amounts of tomatoes, okra, cucumbers, melons, taters, beans (my favorite is the butter bean), tremendous amounts of purple hull peas (hence the purple stains on our fingers when we returned to school in fall). My folks never used the term heirloom or hybrid but you can be dang sure there was lots of cross pollination going on since we farmed about 20 acres of food, otherwise we would have starved to death over the winter or couldn’t pay bills since we use to sell several thousand dollars worth to the local grocers such as Piggly Wiggly, Jade & Brookshire Brothers. Either way, it is safe to assume, I speculate, that everything we were growing was hybrid due to the extreme century & half perhaps time lapse we were utilizing seed from year to year and we never had any kind of low yields, or even blights for that matter (which I have to deal with every year regardless of the strain of seed I use). To answer the potential question of how we would save all this produce year to year my folks used the ol fashioned centuries old technique. Us boys would go out to the woods and drop a few trees, haul to the house, split and stack and the ladies would stand over a few stoves in the back yard (5 to be exact) and they would cook and water bath can everything up in the same ol mason jars my great great grandma used. the larders were always full and now that I look back @ it I never did realize then just how good we were eating compared to the slop being pimped out to the general public today at the grocery stores. Anyway, Loved this article on how to save mater seeds, not the way my folks did it but def will give it a try with my small two acre crop up here in Ne. Pa, I’m growing Manitoba determinate and Mortgage lifter obtained from territorial seed ( use caution with the Manitoba as they always get blighted and only grow about knee high BUT are super heavy producers, Use baking soda with a dash of copper in a baby powder bottle to dust after it rains). Once again, loved the article and am anxiously waiting for more such informative tomes of info :).
My first thought was, “That’s an awful lot of work!” Then I realized it wouldn’t be much work at all if the other choice was starvation next summer. How much the world has changed.
You got that right Brenda! Just yesterday in Philosophy class when my teacher discussed self reliance a girl actually thought the condiment sauce packets @ Taco Bell grew on trees :O. I was ready to pass out hearing her make that comment. In the event of a mass famine, nuclear holocaust or disease pandemic most people would simply starve to death as opposed to being prepared for the worst of possibilities. Teacher knows all about my small farma nd history and when he asked me what I thought after hearing that, the whole class of young blank dumbed down faces looked @ me (I’m only 38 btw), I glanced around and said “I don’t wanna live on this planet anymore”, lol :). Today, my day off I’m currently cooking up some stewed tomatoes, chili (Hot & mild), pickling okra & various peppers, & pressure canning some corn. In total looking at about 60 more jars to be done today. the way I figure it is with 3 people in this home, 1 jar per person, per meal, plus 3 more for snacks in between, times 30 days, times 12-14 months (In event of pandemic, Yellowstone super volcanic eruption, or nuclear strike from Russia), I’m a gonna have to jar up at least up to a thousand jars. Hopefully it never happens, all those bad possibilities, but on the bright side our food bill will next to nothing which leaves more $$$ to spend on family around Christmas and can take extra classes in Spring without depending on the government for those high interest loans. Yes mame the world has changed & feel sorry for todays clueless youth.
I appreciate your article and the great info in the replies, thank you for the education. Could you tell me what type of tomato is shown in the cover photo? I didn’t plant any of these but they just sprouted out of my garden tower. I suspect it came from the compost tube in the middle but I’m not sure. I was thinking of saving the seeds since the plant did so well and the tomatoes were huge and abundant. Are the chances good that these seeds will give me the same results next year? Thanks, Jack in Denver
Jack,
They’re an heirloom San Marzano Lungo No. 2. They’re a great paste tomato for making sauces. If they grew on their own then they are perfect for seed saving. Go for it!
Wow! I’ve been enjoying the comments as much as I did the post. I’m THRILLED to find you! I’ve been learning so much in the last year, and tonight you answered some questions my hubby and I were talking about earlier today. That was your Wheat post. Anyway. This has made me wonder how in the world my mom did what she did. She had a half barrel out by her garden spot. Every year she would ask me, do you need any tomatoes? I saw her toss various tomatoes into the barrel and she kept it covered most of the time. In the spring she would uncover it and put an old window over it. After it got warmer she took the window off and covered it with a screen. And that sucker was FULL of baby tomato plants! I did see her save seeds from cucumbers and such. But the tomato barrel always amazed me.
Fermentation – Was wondering why the extra step is required while ‘volunteers’ come up from a damaged tomato dropped in the garden. Your explanation that it mimics natures rotting makes sense. But then again, instead of dozens of volunteers for every drop, I normally only see 1 volunteer, so is nature selective or finicky?
At the country home I grew up at, the kitchen sink drained to a shallow ditch leading downhill. Always had tomato ‘volunteers’ grow every year along this ditch. Obviously these seeds were washed (at least rinsed) prior to and during the flush down the drain. Seems that if anything was left to rot, it would be the seeds themselves.