There are as many varieties of tomatoes as there are mosquito bites on a bear's ass. I don't even really know what that means, I made it up and hope it sounds kind of folksy.
You know. Like I'm country folk who knows all about tomatoes. And bear's asses.
Truth is nobody knows exactly how many varieties of tomatoes there are, but there's thousands. 3,000 of which are heirloom tomatoes. An heirloom tomato is a plant that has not been bred with another tomato plant. It's DNA is 100 percent inbred. Which could account for why they're sometimes a bit wonky looking.
Heirlooms have not been hybridized with other tomatoes to make them look, ripen, and grow a certain way the way most grocery stores tomatoes have. They are as pure as they were when your great, great grandfather grew them in the 1800's.
It's because of this you can save the seeds of heirloom tomatoes and be guaranteed to get an exact replica of it from those seeds. If you save the seeds from a hybridized tomato you don't have any idea what you're going to get. You could plant the seeds from a juicy, round red tomato and get a pale pink flavourless tomato with stubby fingers and poor math skills. You just don't know.
Even if you didn't plant any heirloom tomatoes this year that doesn't mean you can't save seeds from them.
Take a trip to your local farmer's market or organic grocery store and buy a few heirloom tomatoes. Whatever looks good. Ask the farmer about them. They'll know which ones are the sweetest or saltiest. Take them home and taste them. See which ones you really like and then go out and buy another with the sole purpose of saving the seeds from it.
With most vegetables the only thing you have to do is let the seeds from the plant dry out.
With tomatoes there's a little more work ... but not much.
You know that jelly-like guck around the tomato seeds? In order to remove that you need to ferment the seeds.
The other reason you need to ferment the seeds is because tomato seeds are kind of smart. They actually have a sprout inhibitor built into them so they don't start to grow while they're in the tomato. Fermenting kills the sprout inhibitor. It also protects the seed and makes it more resistant to disease and bacteria.
THE SEEDS HAVE THEIR OWN BUILT IN SPROUT INHIBITOR! If Octomom's seeds had had that she wouldn't be doing porn right now. Well, she probably would, but it wouldn't be to support her trillion kids, it'd be just for the fun of it.
How to Save Tomato Seeds
(detailed instructions following photos)
[print_this]
How to Save Tomato Seeds
1. Cut soft tomato in half across the middle (not from stem to blossom end). This will reveal whole pockets of seeds making them easy to remove. The tomato must be very ripe.
2. Scoop seeds out into a bowl.
3. Cover with a few tablespoons of water.
4. Sit on kitchen counter until a thick mould forms. 4 days or so. Once it smells like dead fish breath you'll know you're close to being done.
5. Rinse seeds clean in sieve.
6. Dry on plate (ceramic, plastic, or as a last resort paper) Do not dry on paper towels because the seeds will stick to it and you'll never get them off.
7. Stir seeds up every day or so to make sure they're drying evenly.
8. Once seeds are completely dry (after several days) place in envelope and then in freezer, or seal in airtight container like mason jar or Tupperware. DON"T forget to label them.
[/print_this]
One tomato will give you more seeds than there's spots on a willy wonker's pecker.
Again. Made it up.
Special thanks to Linda Crago from Tree & Twig for tutoring me on all things tomato, including how to save seeds.
→Follow me on Instagram where I often make a fool of myself←
THANK YOUUUUUUU! (Hi Karen, loveyouloveyourshow er blog) I have some tomato seeds all dried up and NOT ready to go, apparently, sitting on my microwave. They are still covered in dried tomato guck, and, of course they are stuck to a paper towel. I would have tried pathetically to plant them next year and never would have known why they did not grow. and... probably just given up. Oh darn, now I have to go buy some more heirlooms from the farmer's market. :D
Ironically enough and about the time you were typing this comment, I had the same scenario going on in my kitchen. I tore the paper towel into pieces and and planted the seeds, paper towel bits and all, into my potting mix and EVERY SINGLE ONE sprouted this year. I couldn't believe it. Old seeds, improperly stored, and yet, here we are... too many plants.
Now all that remains is to see whether or not the variety I planted is heirloom or hybrid. Who can remember?! :)
Next time I'll try the dead fish breath method.
I can't resist mentioning mother nature's good ol' way of removing germination inhibitors... Passing through an intestine :). See, it all comes back to the bear's ass (or someone's ass)... It always does. Hmm. I think a mouldy bowl is probably the cleaner option in retrospect. <3
May be a dumb question but would Ziplocs work for sealing up the seeds?
I noticed you said this is similar to many vegetables, but do you know if a simliar method would work for watermellon?
T.D. - I have no idea on the Ziploc, LOL. I don't see any reason why not. When I buy seeds from places like Tree & Twig or Cubits, their seeds come in tiny ziplock baggies inside paper envelopes. So I'm gonna go with Yes. Ziplocs would be fine. For Watermelon seeds all you have to do is save the watermelon seeds. You don't need to let them ferment. Just remove them, put them in a strainer, clean them well then stir them into a bowl of water. The seeds that float are bad and should be discarded. All other seeds can be laid out to dry for 2 weeks or so, then packaged up. ~ karen!
Just want you to know I almost got thrown of the commuter bus this morning for literally laughing out loud, then coming down with an uncontrollable case of giggles after opening and reading your post.
I'll chance it going forward- Love your blog!
Thanks Bonnie. I .... don't even remember this post being very funny ... but I'll take your word for it. And the word of your fellow commuters. ~ karen
I think it started at your very first line. :)
My Fella and I were just talking about this last night..We love the tomatoes that we planted this year so we were hoping to find out how to save some seeds..Thank you once again my dear friend I will never meet but will always admire..You are truly the Queen Of Canada..Well..at least the DIY Queen of Canada..lol
Oh my husband is going to love the bowl of mouldy tomato seeds sitting on the kitchen counter. I however am thrilled that you posted this how-to, Karen. I really want to start growing heirloom veggies, particularly tomatoes, and had no idea how to go about collecting the seeds. Thank you!
BOOM! ~ karen
This is great. We've been wondering about this for awhile now. So excited to have yet another thing to try that you have taught me.
p.s., I finally made yogurt, but because one of your commenters suggested sour cream (and it was all I had on hand), I tried it and it came out great!
Good to know Shauna! I was hoping someone would confirm that worked. ~ karen
I just love how you share information I didn't even know I needed!!! I really do appreciate it - you never know when it is going to come in handy. I always wondered about which seeds would be worth saving. Really - thanks!!!
You're welcome Annie! I figure if I want to know, most of you will want to know. And if you don't ... well ... there's always the inbreeding jokes to keep your attention. ~ karen
You need to be a little more thorough with your directions in the "labeling" section.
I labelled mine last year, but when I pulled them out this year my labels made no sense.
I have "middle," I have "big," I have "Cinderella," and I have "sweeter."
I have no idea what any of these are. Middle could be size of fruit, middle planting bed, middle bowl of fermenting seeds that I had forgotten to otherwise label?
Don't be me.
I love it and you always start my day with a smile Karen, thank you..
I am gonna try it this weekend, and I like Uncle Bobs way above too Sometimes when we just GET HER DONE it works just FINE..
cc - Well .. yes you could go with Uncle Bob. Or you could go with Linda Crago, who grows thousands and thousands of tomatoes for a living and sells her seeds via mail order as well. You could go with Uncle Bob. Or you could go with Linda Crago who is a member of every esteemed seed saving society around the world including societies in Canada, England and France. Linda, who is an expert seed saver who travels the world buying rare tomato seeds which she then (using the technique I've shown) propagates and sells or shares the seeds. Or you could go with Uncle Bob. Hah! :) ~ karen
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA !!!! You just kill me,Karen !
Isn't "willy wonker's pecker" a triple redundancy? Ha! Great seed saving info, thanks.
Yea, Kristina. But remember in those days there was no Ly*ol killing 99% of all germs, no antibiotics for everything from hangnail to spotty covered peckers. Your Uncle Bob didn't know or care that the newsprint could possibly poison him (or care). We live in a sanitized world so we have to be whiter than white, cleaner than clean. Bring back the spotty pecker and grow your own grubs in any apples you find on the ground.:)
My Uncle Bob, who was a really tight old farmer, used to just smear the tomato seeds on any old scrap of paper he could find, let the whole thing really dry out, then save the papers in labeled jars. He just tore the seedy paper into pieces and planted the seeds and paper together.
It always seemed to work for him.