I’ve been meaning to save my own tomato seeds for years. It always felt like one of those things that was not merely a good idea but a full-on AWESOME, supremely Jay kind of thing to do. But, probably for curious reasons that are worth me pondering further in solitude, I never found the time to learn do it. It was proving to be a bit like learning to bend notes on the harmonica.
Except that bending notes on the harmonica is really tough, and saving your tomato seeds is shockingly easy.
All you do is…
- scoop seeds out of your tomatoes and cover them in a cup with maybe an inch of water,
- cover the opening of the cup with a paper napkin or towel to let them breath,
- remind yourself over the coming days that the mold soon growing across the water and your seed goop is perfectly normal,
- remove the seeds after a week or all of the seeds have sunk to the bottom of the glass on their own,
- wash them clean in running water,
- dry them on the counter, turning to make sure all sides dry,
- and pop them in the freezer wrapped safe in an envelope, stored for planting next Spring.
Like most vegetable (i.e. – fruit) seeds, tomato seeds are covered in a protective waxy coating. In the wild (and this is all my personal deduction), this coat ensures they survive until they’re safely nestled in the ground. Then the weather and soil wear the coating away so the seeds can sprout into new plants. Continue reading
