How to Cure Tomato Seeds from Your Garden to Use for the Next Year

I love having my own garden. Eating vegetables that I grew myself tastes so much better. The quality is better, and I know what (or what isn't) on it. I don't like having pesticides sprayed all over my food, and I prefer eating vegetables and fruits that haven't been tampered with in the lab. It gives me an even bigger thrill being able to plant seeds from vegetables I grew the previous year. I know what to expect for the next garden produce, and I know exactly where the seeds came from; my own backyard!

Most hybrid variety plants will not grow from seeds from the original plant. Or, if they do grow and produce fruit, the fruit is not what you can expect to find from the original plant. The seeds have been altered to keep you having to buy from the same green house or company, they don't want you to reproduce their vegetables in your own garden year after year. Heirloom plants, however, are not like that. They are the same plants that have been passed down from generation to generation, and you can expect the same fruit from their seeds year after year.

There is a method to obtaining the seeds from a tomato to plant for next year, however. You have to rethink how nature would do it. If left to it's own devices a tomato will fall from its plant and rot there on the ground. The rains would eventually wash seeds from the fruit, and they would sit in the sun and dry out. That's the way that nature would make a new tomato plant. Allowing nature to take its course, however, doesn't mean you'll get a new tomato plant the next year, however, not to mention that there's no telling where it would end up growing if it were to make it through to the next year. So, you've got to take matters into your own hands.

You need to find a tomato you are satisfied with; take into account its size, if there are any defects, etc. Pick the kind of tomato whose traits you would like to carry on.

Open the tomato up and pick out as many of the seeds as you possibly can. Drop these seeds in a small glass container. Add bits of the inside of the tomato (not the skin) to the jar with the seeds. You don't need all of the tomato, just enough to cover the seeds in a layer. Now, add just enough water to cover the tomato. Without a lid, put your jar in a window sill or ledge inside and let it stand for about a week. This causes the seeds to go through the rotting process they would go through if left to the elements.

After the week is up, dump the contents of the jar over a large coffee filter or thin fabric. You are looking for the tiny tomato seeds. Take each seed you find and lay it on a clean, dry paper towel. Once you have found all of your seeds and laid them out on the paper towel, put your paper towel in a safe place where they can dry and not be disturbed. It takes a few days for the seeds to dry thoroughly, about another week. Once the seeds are dry, put them in a small manila envelope, ziplock back, or something similar to keep them safe. Keep them in a dry location without sunlight. We have a special place in our refrigerator for our seeds because the cool air resembles that of winter, a process the seeds would go through normally.

Your seeds are now ready for the next year's crop!