Bonny Best tomato
Tomato
seeds are often gardeners' first foray into seed saving. If you've
found a variety or two that you really like or that are hard to find,
you may want to save some seeds to ensure they continue to be part of
your garden. It is not difficult to save tomato seeds but there are a
few important steps to the process.
First of all, you have hopefully planned for seed-saving
when you planted your garden and have ensured that the varieties you
want to save are sufficiently isolated from the rest of your tomato
crops. “Sufficiently isolated” is a tricky and contentious term
amongst tomato seed-savers: some people swear that they can grow
different varieties of tomatoes side-by-side and have no
cross-pollination; others advocate separating seed varieties by 150
ft or more. The key is the shape of the tomato flower. Although
considered self-pollinating, tomato flowers can have their stigmas
protruding past the anthers and, in these cases, they can be fairly
easily cross-pollinated by insects visiting from plant to plant. To
be safe, home gardeners saving seed just for themselves should
distance the tomato varieties from which they intend to gather seed
by at least 10 ft from other varieties.
Tomatoes are harvested for seed at the same time you
would harvest them to eat – when they are fully ripe. Choose fruits
that are most representative of the specific variety and harvest
fruit from several plants to capture the best genetic profile. Next
comes the fun part – fermentation! This removes the
germination-inhibiting gel from around the seeds. It's a little messy
and a little stinky, but increases germination substantially so it's
well worth it.
Cut
up ripe tomatoes into quarters and place them in a container. If
you'd like to save the flesh for cooking, you can just squeeze the
seeds and surrounding gel from the tomatoes into the container. Add
enough cold water to cover the tomato mixture and stir well.
Place
the container in a cool, out of the way spot – you may want to put
it in a really
out of the way spot, as it does get quite smelly during the
fermentation process. If desired, you can put a cloth over the
container. Whatever you do, make sure you label the container with
the name of the tomato, especially if you are saving seeds from more
than one variety (they all look pretty similar when they're mashed
up!). Over about three days, the tomato mixture will form a white,
foamy “crust”; when the crust covers the entire container, your
tomato mixture is ready for the next step.
Large jugs of tomato seed waiting to be cleaned
Skim off the crust and scoop out a lot of the tomato
flesh that's at the top. Then pour most of the water out – the good
seeds will have settled to the bottom. Add clean water and then pour
that out. Continue to do this until all you have left is clear water
with a layer of clean seeds at the bottom
. Pour off as much of the
water as possible and put the seeds in a suitable place to dry. We
have found that it's best to dry tomato seeds as quickly as possible
or they'll start germinating – and as much as we appreciate their
eagerness, they need to wait until the following spring! Dan's
favourite method is to place the seeds in a plastic sieve and place
the sieve in front of a fan. The fan, blowing at medium strength,
should dry the seeds in a matter of hours. Do not use a metal sieve;
it will blacken the seeds. This doesn't affect their viability but it
makes them look ugly. You can also spread the seeds out in a single
layer on a cookie sheet or plate – please don't use paper towel;
the seeds will stick to it after they've dried and you'll have a
devil of a time getting all those little bits of paper off.
When the seeds are completely dry, store them in a glass
jar or paper seed envelope, label clearly, date and keep them in a
cool, dark, dry environment until you're ready to plant next spring.
