Good news for all you tomato-growing enthusiasts -- saving seeds from your favorite and best-performing tomato plants is easy! And the results are pretty great, too!
Tomatoes are one of the easiest plants to save seeds from.
Jump to:
- What Makes Saving Tomato Seeds So Simple
- What Type of Tomato Plants Can You Save Seeds From?
- What to Look for in a Tomato Plant for Seeds Worth Saving
- How to Save Tomato Seeds: Simple Steps
- VIDEO: It’s Easy to Save Seeds from Your Favorite Tomatoes! (+ traits to look for)
- How to Store Tomato Seeds for Future Use
- How Long are Saved Tomato Seeds Good For?
What Makes Saving Tomato Seeds So Simple
Tomatoes are easy to save seeds from because they are self-pollinating. There is an occasional outside chance that a tomato plant can cross-pollinate from insects spreading other tomato pollen. But this is very rare, to the point where even expert sources don’t consider it enough of an issue to worry about.
Plants that are self-pollinating, like tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, peas, and beans, are the easiest to save seed from because you don’t have to take extraneous measures to hand-pollinate or to protect the flowers from cross-pollination.
You can simply let the self-pollinating plant grow as usual, and then leave the fruit on the vine until it is fully, completely ripe. Then save the seed from the fruit. (In this case, the tomato.)
The process of preparing the seed for saving and storage is a simple one for tomatoes, too. It takes only a few easy steps, and most of that is just time spent waiting without actively having to do much of anything.
What Type of Tomato Plants Can You Save Seeds From?
One thing you do want to make sure of is that you save tomato seeds from tomatoes that come from the right type of tomato plant.
Seeds should only be saved from open-pollinated tomatoes. These are tomatoes that are labeled as open-pollinated or from heirloom tomato varieties.
It is not usually worthwhile to save tomato seeds from hybrid tomato varieties. This is because the plants that grow from them, and the tomatoes they produce, are not very reliable.
Open-pollinated and heirloom tomato varieties grown from saved seed have the same genetic makeup because the parent plants have the same genetic material. The genetics are stable and easily replicated in the seed.
Hybrid tomatoes have two different and distinct parents, each with its own genetic material. The cross produces some excellent tomatoes, to be sure.
The problem when you save tomatoes from hybrid plants, though, is that the offspring will revert back to different traits of the parents. There can be a very wide variety of outcomes, depending on what reversions take place and what mix and match of genetic material is expressed from the parent plants.
What to Look for in a Tomato Plant for Seeds Worth Saving
In addition to the type of tomato plant you choose for seed saving, you want to look for beneficial traits in your tomato garden. You want to select your seeds from the best plants and the best fruits. When you do this, you are selecting from the best genetic material that is shown in your garden.
Even if you have several tomato plants of the same variety, you want to choose from the best of the best among them.
Some traits to look for when selecting the plant and the fruit you choose to harvest seed from are
- Best growth traits, which can be things like
- Fastest-growing plant
- The first plant to produce
- Earliest ripening tomato
- Longest producing plant
- Best disease resistance
- Most resilient plant
- Highest producing plant
- Resistant to things like cracking or blossom end rot
- Blight resistance
You can also select for traits that you want to encourage in your future tomatoes. This can help you hone in on a sort of personally developed strain of tomato that is well suited to your climate, your garden, and your personal preferences and garden goals.
You can choose to save seeds from whatever plants you deem to be the best and most useful for you. The bottom line is, choose the best tomatoes from the best plants.
How to Save Tomato Seeds: Simple Steps
Once you have targeted the best tomato plants to save seeds from, then start looking for the best tomatoes on that plant. Those are the tomatoes that you want to make sure you leave on the plant until they are fully ripe.
It is important to let the tomato fully develop and ripen on the vine. Only then will the seeds be mature and fully developed for seed saving. This is not something we always concern ourselves with when we pick tomatoes to eat.
Tomatoes will continue to ripen off the vine, so they can be picked early for eating, but when you are using those tomatoes to save seeds, you do not want to pick immature fruit. This can reduce the seed viability, and the seeds may not be mature enough to grow.
Once the tomato is fully ripe, you can pick it and save the seeds.
To save the seeds from a tomato:
- Allow the tomato to get fully, completely ripe. It should have a deep color and be very full and juicy (whatever is correct for the type of tomato you are saving).
- Ideally, it’s best to save seeds from two or three tomatoes (or more if you want to save a lot of seed).
- Bring the tomato inside and cut it in half, crosswise through the center of the fruit.
- Scoop out the gel-coated seeds.
- Scoop the seeds into a small jar or bowl.
- Add a tablespoon or two of water to the pulp and seeds in the jar.
- Set the jar on a shelf or counter where it will not be disturbed.
- You can cover the jar with a paper towel, but you should not cap it tightly, as the jar should get air.
- After a day or a few days, the pulp will begin to ferment. It may have a disagreeable odor, but this is normal.
- The mixture will also form a mold or a scum layer on top. This is also normal and is expected.
- When the layer of mold or scum covers most of the surface of the jar, add some water to the jar
- Swirl the contents
- Let the contents of the jar (the seeds) settle to the bottom
- Pour off all the scum and water (as much as you can), but do not lose the seeds
- If a few floating seeds get poured out, this is fine. Seeds that float are not viable anyway.
- Continue rinsing, swirling, settling, and pouring off until the seeds look clean.
- Strain off all the water and then lay the seeds out to dry.
To dry the tomato seeds:
- Spread the seeds out on a metal pan or glass plate, but preferably not on a paper towel, as they will stick to the paper towel (If they do end up sticking to a paper towel, they’re still able to be planted -- the towel will dissolve in the soil when you eventually do plant them)
- Seeds will not stick to a coffee filter, so that is another option.
- If you are saving seeds from more than one variety of tomato, make sure you label the jars so you know which is which when you’re done -- all tomato seeds will look the same! A piece of masking tape on a jar is all you need.
- Spread the seeds into a single layer so they can dry evenly and completely. Again, label the seeds so you can identify the varieties when you go to plant them later.
- Each day, stir the seeds around to break up sticking or clumping seeds.
- After several days (about a week), the seeds should be dry and ready for storage. Do not store your tomato seeds until they are all dry.
VIDEO: It’s Easy to Save Seeds from Your Favorite Tomatoes! (+ traits to look for)
How to Store Tomato Seeds for Future Use
Once the tomato seeds are dried, it’s easy to package and store them.
The best way to store dried tomato seeds is in a paper envelope or a wax seed envelope in an air-tight container. Plastic baggies can be used, too, as long as the seeds are very dry.
- You can store your seeds in bulk, or you can count and separate seeds by quantity (depending on whether you want them all for yourself or if you want to share or give some away).
- Place completely dried seeds in an envelope or bag.
- LABEL the envelope! Label with seed variety and the year the seed was collected.
- Place your envelopes in a protective container, such as a plastic tote or box.
- Stored seeds should be kept in a cool, dry, dark place.
Good storage conditions for saved seeds (or any leftover purchased seeds!)
Where you store your seeds is important for long life and seed viability.
The humidity where you store the seeds should be below 45%. Seeds can be stored in a refrigerator or in a cool closet, under a bed, or in a similar area. Basements are not usually a good place to store seeds because they tend to be more humid.
If you have some moisture-absorbent packets, you can add them to the container you store your envelopes of seeds in. The silica gel packets that come with shoes work well. You can also use moisture absorbers designed for storing dried food. This is optional, but it helps to capture any excess humidity and moisture that might sneak in.
How Long are Saved Tomato Seeds Good For?
Tomato seeds remain viable for several years.
Tomatoes can be saved for as long as 10 years, but you’ll have more success if you use them in a shorter time.
As seeds age, their viability and germination rate go down.
However, you should easily be able to successfully grow tomatoes from seeds that were stored for three to five years if they have been stored well.
Since you now know how easy it is to save tomato seeds, you can save them each year and always have a fresh stock. And by selecting the best of the best performers in your garden, you can build a strain that does very well for your personal microclimate, soil, and location!
