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Alright, it is time to save those tomato seeds! Tomato seeds are super easy to save you just scoop the seeds out and clean them, but I recommend the added step of fermenting (see below) them to make the process even easier!
**Remember when saving tomato seeds, the plant you grow from the seeds you save may not be the same as the parent plant because of cross pollination and whether it is an heirloom variety or not. Check out the science behind seed saving for more details on that.
Fermenting the seeds takes anywhere from 5 to 7 days. Some may ask, why ferment the seeds at all if it takes so long? The fermentation process, removes the gel sacks from around the seeds all at once so you don't have to scrub each individual seed. It takes a few days, but you end up doing much less work in the end.
So let's begin!
First you will cut your tomato in half and squeeze out all of the seeds and juice.
Once you have all of the seeds out of your tomato put them in a jar of water.
The first 2 days just leave the seeds sitting in the jar of water.
After 48 hours you will want to burp your jar once a day. This just means removing the lid and letting the air out of the jar to reduce the pressure associated with the fermentation process, then just put the lid back on. Do this burping process every 24 hours or so after that.
After 5 to 7 days the seeds should be gel free and ready for saving!
They will also be stinky but that is normal.
Once the seeds are free of the gel, you will want to drain the seeds from the water and place them on a paper towel to air dry.
Once they are all dry, place them in your desired storage container and keep in a col dry place until you are ready to plant them. (Paper storage is my recommendation, it will absorb any leftover moisture and keep your seeds viable.)
If you are wondering if they are supposed to be fuzzy, the answer is YES!
Happy seed saving!