Extract tomato seeds and store them properly

 In late summer you can use the last ripe fruits to produce your own tomato seeds. Here we show you how to do this and how to store them properly afterwards.

Anyone who wants to obtain their own tomato seeds 

must first check whether the tomatoes they grow are at all suitable for seed production. 

Many of the varieties offered in the specialist gardening trade are so-called F1 hybrids. 

These are varieties that have been crossed to obtain tomato seeds 

from two so-called inbred lines with precisely defined characteristics. 

The F1 varieties produced in this way are very efficient due to the so-called heterosis effect, 

because the positive characteristics anchored in the parental 

genetic material can be specifically recombined in the F1 generation.

Extracting and drying tomato seeds: The most important facts in brief

Take a well ripened fruit of a seed firm tomato variety. 

Cut the tomato in half, remove the flesh with a spoon and rinse 

the seeds thoroughly with water in a sieve. 

Leave the seeds in a bowl of lukewarm water in a warm place for ten hours. 

Stir with a hand blender and let it rest again for ten hours. 

Rinse the seeds in a sieve, spread them out on a kitchen roll and let them dry.

However, F1 varieties cannot be propagated from 

their own tomato seeds in a variety-identical manner: 

In the second generation - called F2 in genetics - the variety-typical 

characteristics are very different and are largely lost again. 

This breeding method, also known as hybridization, is complex, 

but it also has the great advantage for breeders that the tomato 

varieties produced in this way cannot be reproduced in their own 

gardens - they can therefore sell new tomato seeds every year.

Select seed firm tomato varieties

On the other hand, there are the so-called seed-solid tomato varieties. 

These are mostly old tomato varieties that have 

been grown again and again over generations from their own seeds. 

The oldest breeding method in the world is used here: 

the so-called selection breeding. 

One simply collects the tomato seeds of the plants with the best 

characteristics and propagates them further. 

A well-known representative of these tomato varieties that 

can be reproduced is the beef tomato 'ox heart'. 

Seeds of this variety are usually offered as organic seeds 

in garden shops, as F1 varieties are not usually permitted 

in organic farming. However, the seed is only suitable for reproduction if, 

for example, you cultivate only this one tomato variety in a closed greenhouse. 

If your ox-heart tomato has been pollinated with the pollen of a cocktail tomato, 

the offspring will probably also differ considerably from your expectations.

Obtain tomato seeds: step by step

So much for theory - now for practice: 

In order to obtain tomato seeds for the new year, 

the seeds of a single well ripened fruit are usually sufficient. 

In any case, choose a plant that was very high-yielding and also produced particularly tasty tomatoes.

Cut the tomatoes in half with a knife (left) and remove the flesh with a spoon (right)

Cut the selected tomatoes lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with a 

teaspoon from the inside of the tomato and the surrounding mass. 

It is best to work directly over a kitchen sieve so that 

any tomato seeds that fall down can land directly in it and are not lost.

It is best to remove coarse fruit fish residues with a spoon (left) before rinsing the seeds thoroughly with water (right)

Remove adhering or coarse remains of the tomato with a spoon. 

Then rinse the seeds thoroughly with water. 

By the way, rinsing under a tap works even better than, as in our example, with a bottle.

Take the rinsed seeds out of the sieve. 

They are still surrounded by a germicidal slimy layer. 

This causes a slightly delayed or irregular germination in the following year.

Fermentation decomposes germ-inhibiting substances

Place the tomato seeds dissolved from the fruit in a bowl 

together with the surrounding gelatinous mass. 

Add some lukewarm water and leave the mixture in a warm place for ten hours. 

Then mix the mixture of water and tomato paste with a hand 

mixer for one or two minutes at highest speed and let 

the mixture rest for another ten hours.

Flora Press/Meyer vine table

Next, pour the seed mixture into a fine-mesh household sieve and rinse it under running water. 

If necessary, you can use a baking brush to help mechanically. 

The tomato seeds can then be separated from the rest of 

the mixture very easily and remain in the sieve. 

They are now removed, spread out on a paper kitchen towel and dried thoroughly.

How do you store tomato seeds properly?

Once the tomato seeds are completely dry, 

pour them into a clean, dry jam jar and store them in a cool, 

dark place until the tomatoes are sown. 

Depending on the variety, tomato seeds can be stored 

for quite a long time and still show a very good germination rate even after five years.