I put a paper towel over the jar and hold it on with a rubber band to keep fruit flies away

I had rabbits get into my tomato beds a few years ago and they spread tomato seeds all over the yard. We still have random tomato plants popping up everywhere 😆

SHARE THIS VIDEO IF YOU ENJOYED IT!!! 🐕😁❤

Take a Pot of dry soil, lay your favorite best varieties of tomatoes "slices" on the dry soil. Cover with peat moss or dry soil of your choice. Cover it so no moisture gets in. Let it sit all winter until spring weather arrives. When the daytime temps are over 70° and night temps are above freezing (I wait until it's 55-60°f) uncover the pot and water it really well. You will see every seed emerge! That is the Amish way to save and start seeds. Then when they get true leaves, transplant to individual pots or plant out.

💚🌱🌻🐕 I like the technique J! The alcohol produced in the fermentation process helps remove more of the tomato pulp from the white seed hairs or trichomes. The seed trichomes help with seed dispersal and water absorption during germination and beyond. So your technique aids in ultimately speeding up germination and possible sets the stage for more nutrient absorption longterm. The paper method leaves too much pulp on the trichomes and could potentially inhibit water absorption- delaying germination and possibly impacting fruit yield. No wonder your tomato harvest is so bountiful! This method and your secret fertilizer is a match made in heaven…Chemistry in Motion🔬

Hi James, great informative video! I have saved heirloom seeds for a couple of years, successfully. I use the strainer method and then I put them on brown paper bags or paper plates. FYI, if you're doing a few kinds of tomatoes or other veggies, always label what they are. When they dry, I put them in medicine bottles or spice bottles. When you start doing alot, stay organized or you'll lose track of what you have. Just a frame of reference, I used to buy starts at a garden center. This year, I planted 120 tomato plants from the seeds that I saved last year. Yikes! It's a tomato forest!!!! :):):):)P.S. Love little Tuck, such a cutie:)❤❤❤

This has been my preferred way of saving tomato seeds for years! So glad you're sharing this with others. Just one thing to be aware of - don't ferment the seeds for more than 3-4 days. Longer periods of fermentation have a significant detrimental effect on viability. There's plenty of studies about this online, and I've experienced it first hand when I accidentally left some saved seed fermenting for nearly a week

I LOVE THE WAY YOU COME ON WITH SUCH EXCITEMENT. YOU JUST MAKE EVERYONE HAPPY 😊 LOVE YOU BROTHER. ❤

Exactly how I've been doing this for years! Right down to the paper plate. Very easy way to save the seeds.

❤ Tuck! ❤

Thank you James. This is the first year that I've grown almost everything in my garden from seeds. My sources wanted $4 for a tiny little two leaved cucumber plant and I finally just said NO and started them myself and have had pretty decent results thanks to your videos' inspiration and teaching. I doubt I wouldn't have had the determination without you! I'm in Atlanta, GA and just saved some cantalope seeds using the paper plate method, and want to suggest Chinete plates as they aren't waxed and the water is wicked. Not a big deal because you know they all eventually dry out. :) Hugs to the little guy.

Glad you showed us how to do this, James, thank you. I especially appreciate that you told us NOT to use hybrids, because we probably won't get what we think we'll get. Good advice! Have a great day! 💖🐕

Love your channel. I admire people like you who share their talent and expertise in gardening. What the world needs now is food security as well as green living. How I wish people to cultivate every vacant space for food and not rely on packaged process food.

Loved this James as it is very important to save your seeds to save money! Don't forget to label your jars/cups/mugs/glasses with the variety of tomato seed that you are fermenting! If you are forgetful as me or has some like my hubby who moves things, it is very easy to loose track. When i do a batch of tomatoes for cooking, i like to put the seeds in the relevant cup in one go and also put the date on. I also prefer to put them on a ceramic side dish and transfer over the label. Just my opinion but i really don't like paper plates and rather use plastic re-useable plates from recycled material or normal plates for parties. I bought lunch/ pocket money envelopes from amazon really cheap. 100 100mm x 62mm. I mark them as home grown with the month/year date. Totally agree with the kitchen towel method as the membrane can stick the seed to the tissue and if it too wet, it can start to get fuzzy with mould. You end up with a seed with a bit of tissue stuck to it. Bonus tip(s): After a couple of days, i like to spoon out the floaty bits of tomato flesh as most "good seeds" would have sunk by then and it reduces the flies. If flies are really an issue then sieve the seeds out and replace the water. I normally always keep a home made mini small fly trap next to my main prep area. It is a ramekin filled with home made apple cider vinegar, with a bit of sugar, covered with a square of cling film held on by an elastic band and a hole punched in the middle big enough for a fungus gnat or fruit fly to fit in. I was making the first batch of Autumn chutney, so started a new jar to make apple cider vinegar. I DO NOT use this for cooking but for fly traps and cleaning, etc. I place the peels cores, etc (except the seeds), into a jar as i go along and then fill the jar with water and i think i add about two tablespoons of sugar (i usually eye ball it to the jar size and peels, etc). I label it (sometimes) with the date and if i use a lid i would "burp" it every day to release the gases. Whilst i was getting out my late Mother in Law's jelly making stuff i found some old fashioned cloths in the bag, for all types of stuff. One thing i did find were some old style muslin hankies, perfect for the apple cider jars! I just secured it on to the jar with the rubber band to save burping it as it can overflow if you forget. Anyway, 3/4 weeks and it has fermented enough for traps. If you want to use it for window spray or cleaner, i would leave it a bit longer and then strain it through fine fabric so it doesn't clog the spray nozzle. You can also add it to a diluted water of washing up liquid and oil spray bottle for pests on your plants but always test first and only direct spray in the evening, when the nice bugs go to bed. leave for a day and then spray off, with water. Also, don't over spray as the nice bugs won't want to visit and also it can dry out the plants. I think i just sprayed once in May as it was still to cold for ladybirds, etc... O Boy it looks windy there! The wind and rain has subsided here in London, UK and we have at least two days of warm sunshine before the next low pressure moves in at the weekend but they say it should be as bad as it has been since the beginning of July. Anyways, best wishes to you and your family James, which obvs includes 'lil 'ol Tuck too, bless him!

If you slice the tomato horizontally (on the equator-slicing the upper half off from the bottom half), it's much easier to take a spoon and remove the seeds from the pockets of funiculus.

Love David love you Tucker keep the enthusiasm

I save food safe plastic gallon buckets from Icecream to ferment seeds. Works well. You get a lid, you get a bucket, and you get to eat icecream. win-win-win.

Thank you for this! I'm going to try this this year. I'm assuming to use filtered water, not chlorinated water

Tried this method last year for the first time with my black krim tomatoes. Worked great. Had great germination too.

It’s good to point out if you want to be able to propagate a hybrid tomato, you can if you use the suckers, not the seeds - they will not be true, but the sucker plant will be an exact copy of the original plant.

My mom and I just got about 30 pounds of locally grown heirloom tomatoes today and turned it into 15 quarts of tomato sauce. As we went, we scooped out most of the seeds, like this. Just put them into separate jars to ferment!! First time doing it. Now, all we need to do is make a plan to build a proper trellis system for giant tomatoes next year, cause my little dinky cages aren't even enough for my Manitoba plants this year lol.

Looking forward to trying this. Not sure if you researched about the little white hairs on the dried fermented seeds but I found this: The cleaned and dried seeds are coated with tiny white hairs. These hairs were holding the gooey coating on the fresh seeds and now they will help the seeds soak up moisture when they are planted. Love your channel and my new Grow t-shirt!

❤❤❤ for Tuck. Gnome at 7:19

I dried my seeds on paper trays in my garage. In the winter, I took them outside to start my winter sowing jugs in the yard. A gust of wind blew them away. Now I seed my jugs in the garage.

I have used paper towels and spread the seeds on them and then used another towel to wipe them and let them dry. I have gotten 90% plus sprouting and growth from them. I store them in small recycled very clean restaurant containers. It takes not nearly as much time and effort and the results are amazing. Most of the time I get much better results than store bought packets. I will never use the soaking method, because if I forget them they make tomato wine and not seeds. This method has worked with pumpkin, pepper and many other seeds. I have seen many pros use the soaking method, but it is not for me. Also, write the date and variety name on a small section of the paper towel so you can cut it and put it in your storage container so when the seeds are gone you can wash and reuse it for more seeds.

Natures way is always the EASY way....!

I keep a marker close by to write the name and types on the plates😊, parer towel. I save a number of types that do well and prefer to not make mistakes next year.

💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗 for Tuck

My mom is trying to save some tomato seeds so I played this for her! She really found it useful. Thanks!

Last year I saved seeds from Burpees Early Treat F1 tomato just for fun. I also didn't know the "correct" way of saving seeds. I basically did exactly the same thing I do for saving strawberry seeds. I just removed the seeds without wiping them off or cleaning them in any way, and just spread them out on a piece of paper. I left the paper outside to sit between two rocks in direct sunlight tor 3 days. Unlike strawberry seeds , tomato seeds got stuck to the paper an I had trouble removing them. Some I just left with a little bit if paper still stuck ti them. Anyhow, I planted 10 seeds this season as sn experiment. All of them germinated and were doing great. I noticed two different looking plants emerged. One kind was a regular leaf growing tall, very similar to Early Treat it came from. The other had potato leaf and was growing short like a bush. I ended up keeping only two, one regular leaf and one potato leaf. Both plants develop into healthy mature plants. The regular leaf one looks exactly like Burpees Early treat it came from. It's sic feet tall and the fruits look identical, large cherry tomatoes. The potato leaf one looks completely different. It remained short, less than a foot tall and branched out like a bush. The fruits are irregularly shaped like mini beefsteaks, the taste is great but the skin is so thick, almost like plastic. So, they need to be peeled first. Anyways, those are my experiences snd my seed saving method, which is even easier and it worked well for me. Take care and happy gardening.

This is how I do it. Agree!! Wonderful video!!❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ for Tuck and you!!

Thank you so much James. ❤ to T . The cost of tomatoes have tripled here in India. Due to floods . Trying to grow our native variety.

I actually preserved my very first tomato seeds using this method. Been coming back to this video several times as I go through this process.

The small hairs on dried seeds help the seeds soak up water when they are planted😊

Thanks for this tutorial. I have a bunch of heirloom and dwarf tomato varieties and now I feel confident I can save my own seeds from year to year

Great demo! I have done this method with water with great success. I didn’t know the water ratio tip. Good to know! Thanks for sharing! 🍅🍅🍅😀

I used to work at a vegetable seed company and we always fermented tomato seeds as you described, There are other vegetables that require this process too, like cucumbers, melons and more. Thanks for this valuable tip!

Nice, thank you for sharing! I just grab a tomato and smash it directly into a nursing cup, cover with soil, put a plastic bag on it and let it do the job... works for me.

I use a paper towel to wipe up extra seeds after I eat a tomato. Then I let the paper towel dry. After it’s dry I fold and label the paper towel that has the seeds on it and store it. When you are ready to plant simply pick seeds off the paper towel. 👍

Thank you JAMES for sharing your knowledge, I shall be fermenting my seeds end of our season. ❤❤❤❤❤ for Tuck , and best wishes, from Perth, Western Australia 🇦🇺

thanks james great tips as always 😉

Aside from the great advice about saving seed, that tomato is looking delicious! ♥️😍🤩❤️♥️😍🤩❤️ For little Tuck.

I have actually done the fermentation and it does work. There is a difference. This is the first tomato plant I've successfully planted as a new gardener after not fermenting prior and having them all fail.

❤❤❤❤❤ for the great tips and Tuck!

I just crush up my toms in a strainer & spray with water hose to get everything off the seeds -dry them on a paper towel or a paper plate-It takes about one minute maybe two-I like to do things the easy way.

Nooice bro 👍 Thank you for sharing 👏🏼

Excellent! ❤tuck!!!!

Blessings to all!

Thanks James! Great info!

Brilliant !

Last year I planted a tomato from seed that was 10 years old. 🤯 ❤❤❤❤for Tuck! 😊

Great tip, thanks 😁♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

Amazing 👏

Epic Gardening

Thanks for sharing how to save the seeds. ❤

Very nice 🤩

Thanks fir the great video !

Thank you James!

Great idea, thank you!

Such useful information!🤩

Great videos love to see more and more of these

Nice!

Great!!

Thank you for sharing this info. Love Tuck❤❤❤❤

THANK YOU JAMES N TUCK..

❤❤❤ this! I had great plants this year and was wondering if I could save the seeds to see if I could grow them again. This video came along just in time!!!

Thank you James. I really appreciate this video.

Thanks You James !!

Tomato seeds if dried properly last in storage for very long time. This year I germinated seeds collected in 2001 with great success. I store them in the basement of my house in paper envelope inside of old metal cookie can.

Thank you for your Videos from Berlin/Germany

Thanks for sharing your know-how JP! I've learned so much from you and Tuckie! 💝

Thanks James, I've been Gardening for over 50 years. I'm going to try your method with some Heirloom Seeds. 🍅 Love Tuck❤

Thank You!!!

thanks james!!

I've have learned something new today. Thanks James and Tuck ❤❤.

Great teaching lesson. Thanks!

Very nice

Great video! Thanks!

yes thx you are an inspiration

How interesting!!

good job 👏

Sweet 🎉❤

Interesting ideas!

💖💖💖bueno

Very good 💚♥️

😍😍Thank you for this video..great tips👍👍👍liked💕

How wonderful what good work you do

Amazing tomato seeds ready for planting

Beatifull

Brilliant! Well done! Love your high vibe! Thanks...

Thank you

I like the gardening secuence

Nice produce

Maravilloso

Thanks for sharing...this was very helpful👍🥰

Me encanto!!

Great video..goid tip on their heirloom seeds

Absolutely great video. Thank you for teaching me how to do this. I was wondering gow it worked. Now i can save my seeds and not have to buy so many every year

Very beautiful

Very informative I will try thanks