Do you save your own Tomato seeds? if so, how?

[arpoet]

Following on from the earlier tread about saving tomato plants from one year to the next, I got to thinking about saving my own tomato seeds.
So, Do you save your own Tomato seeds? if so, how? And how successful did you find it?
Many thanks
Roger

[Bren In Pots]

Roger I always save my tom seeds just by rinsing them then spreading the seeds onto kitchen paper to dry. Once dry I bag and sometime theres a bit of paper left on the seed but that doesn't seem to matter.

Others do it differently by fermenting the seeds first, like it says on the real seeds site :-

How To Save Your Own Seed at Home

[Bigmallly]

I've done basically the same as Bren in the past. Mulch a tomato into a container of water, leave to stand for a while, remove any pulp & floating seeds as they most likely won't germinate, dry the remaining seeds on some kitchen paper, package up..............

[arpoet]

Gee thanks Bren. Its great link that. I must have a go. It will be cheap experiment.
Roger

[poly]

I usually save several tomato varieties each year. I find the best way for me is to ferment them for a few days to get rid of the gel around the seed coat, pretty much as detailed by Real Seeds. I think it cleans the seeds up well, I don't get any bits going in with the dried seeds, which looks better if your giving or swapping seeds with others and it may help with germination.

But if I just want a few couple of seeds to try, quite often I'll smudge them onto a piece of kitchen paper spreading them out individually and when dried store them and paper ready for sowing. It's quite easy to just tear one off with it's paper backing when you are ready to sow.

[Two_Sheds]

I always save my tom seeds just by rinsing them then spreading the seeds onto kitchen paper to dry.

Same here, except I don't bother rinsing them

[cariann88]

I just cut the tomato in half and then spread them on kitchen paper and let them dry.

[daviddevantnhisspiritwife]

^ ditto (spread on kitchen roll, dry, pick off, seal in snap seal bag).

[Scarlet]

I pot them in a jar of water for 3 day...the seeds sink to the bottom, drain of the mould and then dry off the seeds.

[More basil]

Or squirt the tomato into a coffee filter, remove the worst of the goo and leave to dry. They are then conveniently packaged and can be labelled.

[marchogaeth]

Just to point out that most tomatoes will not (are very unlikely to) cross pollinate which is why we can safely save seed without having isolated the plants/trusses/flowers. However, some of the older varieties have the stigma outside the ring of stamens and can/will cross-pollinate.

If you really want to be sure, you should net the flowers and hand pollinate - I don't bother once I've checked out the position of the stigma but I do ferment the seeds because I just like how much cleaner they are.

[Guest]

Yep, kitchen roll, pick, bag.

If I am being really lazy I just throw the 'past it' toms on the greenhouse floor then prick out and replant when the time comes.

I do find toms cross easily but I don't tend to mind.