How to Save Tomato Seeds: Tips for Storing Tomato Seeds

Save tomato seeds for a DIY way to grow and enjoy ripe fruit straight from your garden:

1. 1. Choose your tomato. You’ll get the most viable seeds from a ripe tomato or even an overripe one, so be sure to feel your tomato before saving its good seeds. If your tomato is too firm, wait a few days for it to ripen. Your tomato should feel like it has some give when you squeeze it so you know it’s ripe and juicy. Avoid underripe green tomatoes as well as damaged, rotten, or blemished tomatoes.
2. 2. Slice and scoop your tomatoes. Harvest tomato seeds by first cutting the tomato in half. Then, with a spoon, scoop out the central gel that encases all the seeds.
3. 3. Sort the tomato seeds. Place your clump of seeds into a strainer. Remove the pips from the gel, which inhibits germination rates. To clean seeds, go to the sink and rinse the strainer with slow-running water to separate the seeds from the gel.
4. 4. Pat the seeds dry. Flip the strainer over onto a flattened coffee filter or paper plate, keeping the seeds separated from each other to air dry. Lightly pat the seeds with a paper towel to get rid of excess water and gel (which can attract fruit flies), and then let them sit out for a week or two indoors, away from direct sunlight, in a dry place that is about room temperature.

Saving tomato seeds means you can enjoy fresh fruit the next growing season, and properly storing them will allow you to keep seeds for up to five years. Paper envelopes make for great seed savers. Label envelopes with dates and variety names—cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes—so you’ll know which envelope keeps which seeds when it comes time for growing tomatoes. Store in a cool, dry place, and plant the seeds next spring to enjoy homegrown fruits.

If you do not want to sort and dry your tomato seeds, an alternative way to keep them involves fermentation. Fermentation helps the seeds produce a greater quantity and quality of fruit. Follow these steps to ferment tomato seeds:

1. 1. Prepare a jar. Sanitize a jar and let it fully dry.
2. 2. Choose your tomatoes. Take tomatoes of the same variety, and squeeze the seeds and gel into the jar.
3. 3. Cover and store the jar. Cover the jar to keep it air-tight and store it in a room-temperature, dry place away from direct sunlight.
4. 4. Stir the jar twice a day. Stir the contents of the jar twice a day.
   
5. 5. Move into a larger container. After three days, pour the tomatoes into a bigger container and fill it with three times the water.
6. 6. Shake the jar. Shake it up; the seeds will sink to the bottom of the container.
7. 7. Retrieve the pips. Pour out the pips into a sieve, rinse with cool water, and let them air dry for a week or two.

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