How To Save Tomato Seeds

Published by Maggie on

Tomato seeds should be matured before drying and saving them. The fermentation process happens in nature when a tomato decays to give life to the next generation and dissolves the coagulated, anti-germination coat on the outside of the seeds. It additionally kills any seed borne ailments that the plant may have had that could be transferred to the next generation. There are slight varieties to the strategy, but this is probably the most effective one:

Select great quality tomatoes that you need to spare seed from and a clean container (choose the size depending on how much seeds you are working with, but usually a plastic cup is enough). If you are sparing seed from more than one tomato assortment, make sure to keep them in isolated containers, and name them so you know which will be which. Note that only heirloom seeds will yield seeds that will produce the same variety the next generation.

Cut the tomato open and scoop the seeds into a container alongside the jam like mash that encompasses the seeds and the juice.

Include a small amount of filtered water. Chlorinated water can hurt the microbial balance. The measure of water relies on upon the sort of tomato. Truly big, juicy tomatoes will require next to zero water included as smaller assortments may require significantly more.

The amount of water truly doesn’t make a difference if you have a lot of mash and juice, so don’t include too much that the blend turns out to be super weakened.

Give the container and the blend a chance to sit a couple days in a warm, yet shady spot. A film of white mold will create on top. Stir the blend and let it sit again for a couple more days. Depending on how much water was added, the maturation could take up to seven days. Simply ensure you have an nice film of mold on top, and you can be sure that the fermentation process has been finished. When it’s all done, simply throw away the moldy part.

Rinse the seeds by pouring the rest of the contents into a mesh strainer and rinsing the seeds with water.If you don’t have a strainer, you can keep adding water to dilute the pulp and pouring the water and pulp mix off the top until you just have the seeds and a tiny bit of water at the bottom of the container.

Give the seeds a chance to dry for a couple days. Lay them on a piece of paper or paper plate. You can see that the gel covering on the seeds is gone and they are pretty and sparkly. Transfer the dried seeds to a container to be put away until they are prepared to be utilized. Keep in mind to label the container.

Categories: Vegetables