{"id":43263,"date":"2016-11-04T10:50:50","date_gmt":"2016-11-04T14:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hobbyfarms.com\/?p=43263"},"modified":"2020-11-03T03:38:28","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T08:38:28","slug":"save-tomato-seeds-before-its-too-late","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hobbyfarms.com\/save-tomato-seeds-before-its-too-late\/","title":{"rendered":"Save Tomato Seeds Before It&#8217;s Too Late"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The growing season is coming to a close, and soon enough, you&#8217;ll be pulling tomato plants out of the ground in preparation for winter. However, before your crop is gone for good, make time to save seeds for planting next growing season. It&#8217;s a fairly simple process, but there are a few things you should know if you haven&#8217;t saved seeds before.<\/p>\n<h2>1. Save Only From Organic Plants<\/h2>\n<p>If you want to grow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hobbyfarms.com\/organic-farming-3\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">organic<\/a> tomatoes in the future, the seeds need to come from organic plants. Plants that have been heavily fertilized or sprayed with pesticides have adapted to that way of living and could potentially have a harder time at survival if you plan to go organic next year. Choosing seeds from hardy organic plants will give you your best odds at growing a strong crop in the years to come.<\/p>\n<h2>2. Save Only From Heirloom Plants<\/h2>\n<p>By saving seeds from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hobbyfarms.com\/5-flavorful-heirloom-tomatoes-you-need-to-grow-this-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">heirlooms<\/a>, as opposed to hybrids, you&#8217;re ensuring that your new crop will take on the traits of the parent plant. In hybrids, you may get traits from either the male or the female plant or even a plant further back in the plant&#8217;s lineage. While you&#8217;ll surely get a tomato, what type of tomato it will be is more in question.<\/p>\n<h2>3. Ferment The Seeds Before Drying<\/h2>\n<p>Tomato seeds, as you may have noticed, are covered with a slimy gel, which is meant to protect the seed. This covering needs to be removed if it&#8217;s going to be planted, and the way you do that is by fermenting the seeds with the gel in a jar covered with a cloth for three to four days. When you start seeing a mold appear on the surface of the liquid, you can strain the seeds through a sieve to remove the liquid and prepare the seeds for drying. However, be sure to get to the seeds before they begin to sprout\u2014once sprouted their viability is lost.<\/p>\n<h2>4. Dry Tomato Seeds Somewhere\u00a0Dark &amp; Ventilated<\/h2>\n<p>After fermentation, lay the seeds on a paper towel or mesh screen out of direct sunlight to dry for about one week. Afterwards, you can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hobbyfarms.com\/how-to-make-your-saved-seeds-last-3\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">store the seeds<\/a> somewhere dark and cool until you&#8217;re ready to use them next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To ensure you&#8217;ll get the ripe, juicy tomatoes you love year after year, you need to start to save tomato seeds. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crops-gardening","post_format-post-format-video"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.0 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Save Tomato Seeds Before It&#039;s Too Late - 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