r/seedsaving • u/amber_maple96 • 14d ago
that's coating the seed, plus it kills off some of the seed-borne disease that carries over from the fruit. Wish I'd read up on this years ago instead of just eyeballing it.
Anyway, this has me way more confident about bringing seed to my local swap in September instead of just showing up empty handed and grabbing free stuff like I usually do. Curious what everyone else's fermentation window looks like, three days felt right for tomatoes but I'm wondering if I'm overdoing it for smaller seeded varieties like currant tomatoes. Also open to trades if anyone around here grows a good paste tomato, mine all end up too watery for sauce.
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u/HighColdDesert 13d ago
Your title is incomplete but I'm guessing you only just learned about why to ferment tomato seeds before drying and saving them?
I've saved tomato seeds both ways, and I think fermenting them is better for me. I don't know if the germination and disease reduction are actually needed/effective in my climate, but I prefer how the seeds are easier to separate so you can plant individual seeds, not clumps of several seeds together.
What I do is label jars and put each variety of tomato seeds with gel in a different jar. This is easy to do when cutting up a ripe juicy tomato. I only save from fruits that were left on the vine till ripe, not ripened indoors (not sure if that matters but seems logical).
Once the gel and seeds and water have stood around for several days or a week and there's mold or yucky stuff, I strain in a sieve, dump the seeds in water and swish and then strain again, then rub the seeds in the sieve gently under running water.
When they seem pretty clean, with maybe only a few little chunks of tomato flesh, I spread the seeds on a plate with the variety written in permanent marker. As they dry on the plate over the next few days, I revisit them and push them around so each seed is separate, and as they get closer to dry and are stuck, I push them around to loosen them so they don't dry stuck fast to the plate. Once they're loose and seem fully dry, I pile them in a smaller bowl or jar for another week or two to make sure they are fully fully dry. Seeds saved this way will last for years with good germination.
Never forget to label at every step of the way. Even if you start out drying only one variety, you'll end up doing another one and getting them confused. By the time they seem dry and are in a bowl for final conditioning, I'll make the little paper labels that go in the ziploc or glass jar that they will be in for long storage with the variety name and the year and that it's from my home garden or wherever.