Kitchen Garden Forum

I'm trying to save seeds from two different varieties of tomato I've grown this year and wonder about the best way of drying them. In the past I've dried them on kitchen tissue paper but found that the seeds stuck to the paper when dry. This year I've tried drying them direct on dishes in their "Mucuus" and this doesn't seem to be terribly successful either as they end up all sticking to each other.
How do other people save theirs?

Hi Primrose,

Realseeds.co.uk have some advise about drying tomato seeds which 3 steps - letting the seeds ferment, Adding with water and then rinsing with a sieve.

Check out: http://www.realseeds.co.uk/tomatoes.html

for more details.

I too have tried the kitchen towel method with little success - so I may try the realseeds method next time!

Kranser.

Many thanks. I'll try this and see how it works.

Hi Primrose,
If the worst comes to the worst simply cut the paper around the seed and sow the lot because it will not affect the germination at all.
JB.

I went on the Real Seeds seed saving course a couple of years ago and tried all sorts of ways of saving things, different ways for different seeds, and their tomato one is very easy.

Get a screw top jar and half fill it with water and put in your tomato seeds. Give it a good shake and leave it on the windowsill for a few days. Oh and label it if you are saving a few different varieties. Shake the jar every day, and after a few days the jelly will have come off the seeds and the good seeds will sink to the bottom.

Pour into a fine mesh sieve and rinse the rubbish away then plonk them onto a plate to dry out thoroughly. You will then have nice clean seeds to put in a paper envelope for next year. The little plastic sealable packets are OK too so long as the seed is very dry, or it will go mouldy. Label with Variety and the date and they should last a few years.

Their other method is just to put them on kitchen towel, spaced out and keep them like that, just tearing a seed off at a time to sow them.

I put mine on kitchen towel. Let them dry then fold up and keep in a jam jar. At sowing time I just cut up the paper and sow as usual. I've never had a problem getting them to germinate.

Am retrying both your methods as I write.

Somebody has asked me if it's worth saving the seeds from green tomatoes which have been picked from blighted plants. I personally wouldn't think it was worth the risk but does anybody have a definitive answer? . Quite apart from the possible problem of reinfecting new young plants germinated from this seed, I'm wondering whether the seeds won't be mature enough to germinate later if they're from unripe plants.

i allways squirt the seeds out of the tomatoe onto kitchen towel, spread them out and leave on windowsil to dry. come planting the paper gets torn up and planted along with the seeds. would have thought the seeds in green toms would be immature, but would try if it was difficult to get new seed of that particular variety.

I squeeze the seeds and juice into a jamjar and leave it on the windowsill for 3 or 4 days. Usually a mat forms on the top. I then rinse them and dry them on greaseproof paper before storing in envelopes. The bacterial action cleans the seeds and prevents disease.