Content
Collecting tomato seeds is relevant for anyone who grows seedlings on their own. Of course, you can buy them in a specialized store, but there is no guarantee of germination and compliance of the variety with the label. In addition, elite planting material is not cheap. For people who cultivate vegetables for sale and farmers, the question of how to collect tomato seeds at home is especially important.
Even a novice gardener can cope with this task - it does not require any special knowledge, experience, or a lot of time. We will tell you how to properly collect seeds from tomatoes, and also invite you to watch a video on this topic.
Why collect tomato seeds yourself?
In addition to the high cost of elite seed material, there are other reasons why it is better to obtain it yourself:
- Store-bought seeds are most often simply collected and packaged in bags. In the best case, they are covered with a special shell, treated with laser or ultrasound, and inlaid.Of course, this increases the germination of tomato seeds and resistance to fungal diseases, but where is the guarantee that they were originally of good quality? In addition, this significantly increases the price of planting material, which, when growing tomatoes for sale, significantly increases their cost.
- Who among us has not encountered the fact that the number of seeds stated on the bag did not correspond to reality?
- It's no secret that unscrupulous traders change the expiration date indicated on the label.
- Seed material is not always available in the store. Sometimes the necessary planting material is sent to us by friends and acquaintances from other regions or even countries. What to do next year?
- On your own, you can collect as many seeds as you need and even more.
- Tomatoes grown from your own seed material will be more suitable for growing in your conditions than store-bought ones.
- You can process the seeds collected for seedlings to increase germination and against diseases in any convenient way.
- You will save money, which is not superfluous when planting a large plantation of vegetables.
- And lastly, you will save your nerves. When buying seeds in a store, first we guess whether it will germinate or not, then what exactly will grow. And all the time, from sowing seeds for seedlings until the end of harvesting: if you get sick, you won’t get sick.
Tomatoes suitable for self-propagation
Before collecting seeds, you need to know which tomatoes you can and should take them from, and which ones it is useless to mess with.
Varietal tomatoes
These are the tomatoes from which you need to collect seeds. Just choose a variety and plant at least one bush.Of course, you won’t collect enough seeds for a couple of hectares from one plant, but that’s okay, next year there will be more. The main thing is that the bushes do not suffer from anything and are not affected by pests.
Hybrid tomatoes
Is it possible to collect seeds from hybrids? Absolutely not! Hybrids are obtained by crossing two or more varieties, and this happens in greenhouses to prevent cross-pollination with other cultivars.
You can, of course, collect their seeds and sow them as seedlings. It will even sprout and bear fruit. But you are unlikely to be happy with such a harvest. Next year, the signs of hybridization will split, and tomatoes will grow different in height, shape, color, and ripening time. It is not a fact that you will like them or, in general, will have any commercial or nutritional value.
So, tomatoes grown from seeds collected from hybrids do not inherit the properties of the original plants. Most likely, they will not even resemble either the parent varieties or each other.
Fruits of unknown origin
An interesting question: is it worth collecting seeds from a tomato you really like? We can meet such people anywhere – at the market, at a party. Our advice is to collect seeds from all the fruits you like! If there are few of them, leave them until spring, sow them and see what happens. If there is a lot, select 5-6 grains, stimulate with epin or other special means and sow in a bowl. If the resulting plants are identical, like twins, you are lucky, this is a variety, grow for your health. If it comes out inconsistent, throw it away without regret.
Collection and storage
Let's look at how to properly collect tomato seeds.To do this, you need to select suitable fruits, extract their contents, dry them and store them until spring.
Selection of tomato fruits
In order to collect high-quality seeds, you do not need to choose the largest tomato and keep it on the bush until fully ripe. Follow these rules:
- To extract seeds, take the tomatoes that were one of the first to appear. In a greenhouse - from the second or third brush, in the ground - from the first. Firstly, the lower ovaries bloom first, when the bees are not yet very active, therefore, the likelihood of cross-pollination is less. Secondly, the apical fruits are smaller than the lower ones. Thirdly, the longer a tomato grows, the greater the likelihood of late blight or other fungal infections.
- Even for varieties that are new to you, before collecting tomato seeds, ask what they should look like. Take only fruits that have a typical shape, color and size.
- To obtain your own planting material, it is best to pick brown tomatoes (then are ripening), in extreme cases, in full color, but not fully matured. Overripe fruits are not at all suitable for collecting seeds - their embryo is already ready for germination and, after drying, is unsuitable for further propagation.
- Always pick tomatoes only from healthy, disease-free bushes. If you think that it is better to let the tomatoes get sick than to “poison them with chemicals,” plant several plants separately and treat only them. If you haven’t done this right away, plant it; tomatoes tolerate transplantation well.
Seed collection
Wash the brown tomatoes, dry them, and place them for ripening at a temperature of about 25 degrees.Just be careful not to overripe them, as after that they will only be suitable for making salad. There are many ways to collect tomato seeds. They are all similar to each other, but differ only in small details.
Fermentation
Cut well-ripened, but by no means overripe tomatoes of the same variety into two parts, carefully collect their seeds with a spoon along with the liquid into a jar, bowl or plastic cup.
Cover the vessel with gauze and place it in a warm place, shaded from direct sunlight, for fermentation. Usually it lasts 2-3 days, but much depends on the ambient temperature and the chemical composition of the tomatoes. As soon as the juice clears, most of the seeds will sink to the bottom, and bubbles or a film will appear on the surface, proceed to the next stage.
Drain the liquid from the container along with the tomato seeds floating on the surface - they still won’t sprout. When there is little juice left, use a strainer. Rinse several times, last time under running water.
Dissolve a teaspoon of salt in a glass of water and pour in the tomato seeds. Good ones will sink to the bottom, bad ones will float to the surface.
Fast way
Anything can happen. Even the most exemplary housewife, just at the moment when the tomato fruits selected for seed production ripen, may not have enough time to ferment them. What to do? Remove the seeds from the tomato and spread it on the toilet paper spread on the table. Do not rinse or try to scoop out the scooped pulp.
The quality of tomato seeds will, of course, be worse than after fermentation and culling, but quite acceptable.
Drying and storage
Now all that remains is to dry the seed material and send it for storage. Simply place the seeds obtained quickly in a place protected from the sun (for example, on a wardrobe or under a bed), cover with a layer of gauze and dry at room temperature.
Comment! You may have a special dryer, use that.
Place the tomato seeds obtained after fermentation on a clean cloth, napkin, toilet paper or plain white paper. You can dry them, stirring from time to time, or you can simply spread them on paper in a thin layer.
Place the dried seeds in paper bags and be sure to write the name of the variety and year of collection. Tomatoes retain good germination (for commercial purposes) for 4-5 years.
Watch a video about collecting tomato seeds:
Conclusion
As you can see, there is nothing difficult about collecting seeds. Having obtained the desired variety of tomatoes once, it is not at all necessary to spend money on purchasing them in the future. Just remember that this does not apply to hybrids. Have a good harvest!
