How to Save Tomato Seeds: and grow food for free!

Food sovereignty and diversity starts, and ends, with being able to save your own seeds. By saving your own seeds, you are able to plant for free the following year, but also select specific breeds and qualities that work well for your garden. You also have the ability to share your seeds with neighbours, and pass them down for generations to come. In this article, we will focus on how to save tomato seeds.

If you’ve ever thrown a tomato in the compost and used that soil back in your garden, you’ve probably experienced a few voluntary tomatoes pop up.

Tomatoes are filled with dozens of seeds, all ready to sprout once they get cozy in soil.

But, some times it’s nicer to be able to choose where the seeds go and for that you need to know how to save your seeds!

Food Sovereignty and Corporate Interests

Seed saving is a traditional practice that, like many omitted traditional practices, has almost been lost. Although those seed packets cost a few dollars from the store, you can collect hundreds to thousands of seeds on your own, with very little effort.

The ability to collect your own seeds has been taken away from many farmers. Corporations (ie. Monsanto, now all products renamed under the merger with Bayer to escape the negative PR) have patented many seeds they have sold to farmers with promises of increased yields and mass profits. But as they are patented you cannot save the seeds.

So farmers have to buy the seeds new each year, and with the seeds comes a need for pesticides and herbicides as planting is done via monocrop and the natural balance is disrupted.

The soil microbe is damaged from heavy use of toxic chemicals, and the farmers are in a continually loop to purchase more fertilizers to counteract the toxins to allow the plants to grow, all from the same companies, and under the promise of increased yields.

If you haven’t already, I highly encourage you to read up on the devastating cycle farmers all over the world are locked into.

In today’s grocery store market we have lost the majority of seed varieties. Tomatoes are red, cucumbers green, carrots orange. Squash are smooth and light.

Seed saving is a critical component of food sovereignty: the ability to produce your own food. To save your own seeds, trade and pass them on is a silent protest and way you can support and promote seed diversity and heirloom varieties.

When to Save Tomato Seeds

Tomatoes need to be fully ripe in order to properly save the seeds.

As tomatoes are a slow growing fruit, this will be anywhere from mid-summer to fall. Keep this in mind when you are planning the timing of your plants. Most climates require you to start your tomato seeds indoors, many weeks (or months!) before planting out.

As you are collecting your tomato bounty at season’s end, choose from the best tomatoes to save the seeds. This ensures the quality of the genes.

Go ahead and still enjoy the tomato! You’ll need to know what it tastes like too. Each tomato can produce tens, if not, a hundred seeds, and you will only need a few of each variety.

I recommend collecting about 10-30 seeds of each variety, unless you plan on sharing or have fewer varieties.

For one person, you will need 6-8 roma tomatoes to feed them for a year. Now here we certainly require more because we love tomatoes and eat a lot of tomato goods, so plan (and plant) accordingly!

How to Save Tomato Seeds

In order to save seeds from most plants you simply wait for them to dry up and release the seeds.

For tomatoes, because they have a gel-like substance surrounding them, you need to do a little bit more work. In nature, the fruit would fall and rot, drying up the seeds and releasing them into the soil.

While that would take far too long. If you are a “wild” gardener, go ahead and place a few tomatoe slices out in your garden or even a dug in bucket of soil.

The tomato will rot and next spring you’ll have a few surprise-but-calculated seedlings growing. You can then transplant them to a more appropriate location.

Choose the Best Seeds

Start by choosing a good tomato. You want one that tastes good or has the qualities you’re looking for.

Also note if the original seeds were open-pollinated or hybrid. All heirloom seeds are open-pollinated.

Hybrid seeds, while they can be planted, do not guarantee that you will end up with the fruit you took them from. Hybrids will often change back into one of the parent plants. Unless you like tomato plant surprises, stick with fruit from open-pollinated plants.

Here is a list of plant qualities you may consider when choosing your best tomatoes:

• Size
• Flavour
• Appearance
• Plant health
• Uses

How to Save Tomato Seeds

Prep time: 1 hour

Rest time: 3 days

Cost: $0

Supplies

• Fine mesh colander
• Jar or bowl
• Cheesecloth/coffee filter
• Plate
• Ripe tomatoes
• Label
• Sealable envelope

Harvesting Your Tomato Seeds

Cut your tomato in half. Its best to cut through the centre rather than end-to-end. That way its easier to scoop out the seeds and you may have tomato rind you can still eat. Bruschetta anyone?

Scoop out the seeds and place them in a bowl or jar. If there’s not enough juice to cover the seeds and make them float, add enough water to do so. You want to have more than enough liquid that the seeds will float and separate from the pulp.

Cover your jar with cheesecloth or a coffee filter and set it in a warm location to allow it to ferment. This process will take 2-4 days.

When fermenting, it may start to stink as a mold layer grows. The cheesecloth will help minimize the smell.

Be sure to label each variety as you can be sure you will forget!

Once you see a layer of mold on top of the seeds, or bubbles are starting to rise, you’re ready to move onto the next step.

If you leave them too long they can begin to germinate so check your jars daily!

The seeds will have fallen to the bottom and the pulp will have the mold layer on top.

To get your seeds, simply peel back the mold/pulp add more water and shake vigorously. The good seeds will settle to the bottom and you can pour off the rest.

Pour the seeds into your colander and rinse them well. Remove any bits of pulp or mold that remain until you have clean seeds.

Lay your seeds out onto a plate (do not use a paper towel or the seeds will stick). Put them in a dry location and allow them to dry completely. If you package them too soon they can germinate or become moldy.

Stir the plate daily to break up any clumps.

Do not try and add heat to speed up the process or you could kill the seeds. That includes putting them in a sunny or warmer location.

Storing Your Tomato Seeds

Once your seeds are dry, simply store them in an envelope and place them in an airtight container such as a mason jar. Don’t forget to label with the variety and date of your seeds!

Store them in a cool, dry place.

Best Seeds to Store

Open-pollinated, heirloom seeds are the best seeds to save. Not only will you get what you’re looking for, but you’ll also help ensure seed diversity and lineage.

Heirloom tomatoes often have more flavour and can be quiet interesting coloure and shapes!

Trade your seeds with others or use a local Seed Bank.

Final Thoughts

As corporations such as Bayer (bought out Monsanto) become bigger and bigger, and they have product lines spanning food, seeds, pharmaceutical, agricultural, and household, it becomes more and more important to learn how to grow our own food and save our own seeds.

If not for us, than for the generations to come.

Most seeds you can save easily, and with that you ensure your family’s food security and sovereignty. A self-sufficient life of freedom!

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