I have been saving tomato seeds to plant next year by scooping them out onto pieces of kitchen paper (or toilet paper or blotting paper) and letting the jelly dry out. Then I put them into unlabelled envelopes so that next spring I have great fun planting seeds without any idea what's going to come up. For even more fun, put the unlabelled envelopes in the shed and forget about them until 2012, so that you also have the fun of wondering whether 5-year-old tomato (probably) seeds will even germinate at all.
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Saving Tomato Seeds
I have been saving tomato seeds to plant next year by scooping them out onto pieces of kitchen paper (or toilet paper or blotting paper) and letting the jelly dry out. Then I put them into unlabelled envelopes so that next spring I have great fun planting seeds without any idea what's going to come up. For even more fun, put the unlabelled envelopes in the shed and forget about them until 2012, so that you also have the fun of wondering whether 5-year-old tomato (probably) seeds will even germinate at all.
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5 comments:
Well, my seed packets are marked, but then I never remember where I planted anything, so the end result is the same... Aha, so that's where I planted the thyme!
All this rain has made my redcurrants explode!!!!
Hey, thanks for inspiring me to save seeds (for planting rather than eating) for the very first time ever. I did label the envelope however. :)
I meant to ask you about this yesterday - have you done this before? I'd like to try it, but someone mentioned to me that some commercial breeds of tomato might be bred to be infertile. I fancy having a go, though, and seeing what happens.
Yes, I've done it before, both saving seeds from tomatoes I've grown and seeds from shop-bought tomatoes. What you need to watch out for is F1 hybrid varieties, which don't breed true, and your own tomatoes may have crosspollinated with another variety leading to some odd crosses. Last year Ed grew sunflowers from saved seeds - the parent plants were tall with large flowers, but the seeds grew into tall plants with little tiny flowerheads. They looked very funny.
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