My boyfriend's grandma got really excited about a dark heirloom tomato a friend gave her and asked us to save the seeds for next year. My boyfriend scooped out the seeds to dry on a paper towel and used the rest of the tomato for breakfast, but I'm wondering if the seeds were ripe enough since the tomato was still fresh. We're also growing our own tomatoes in the garden and plan to harvest seeds; should we leave them on the vine until they start to rot?
2 Answers
If the tomato was ripe enough to eat, then the seeds should be fine! When saving tomato seeds, it’s actually pretty straightforward. You can find some helpful tips online that make it feel rewarding, like harvesting those seeds yourself!
Just scooping out the seeds isn’t enough for proper seed saving. You should really look up some videos on YouTube about fermenting tomato seeds to fully clean them. The gel coating around the seeds needs to be removed for the best results.