Now I know that the title seems a bit obvious, I know what you're thinking. "Of course tomatoes grow tomatoes, now if you said 'Growing tomatoes from bananas' then I'd be more impressed" Yeah, Okay. Bear with me here. It's not as straightforward as you'd think.
Usually, we buy the seeds of the produce we want to grow. But what if I wanted to grow raw seeds? Straight from the very fruit I'm eating?

You'd think that just sticking a few raw seeds into the ground would do it. And it might, but it'll take a lot longer and there's actually a proper way to do it, that mimics the natural process the seeds would go through in nature. This will yield healthier plants and allow you to save and store the seeds of your favorite types of tomatoes for future use!




For most seeds, storage usually only requires cleaning, drying, and refrigeration. However since tomatoes have a special kind of wet seed (seed with pulpy coating), extra care must be taken.
The "wet" part of the tomato actually contains substances the keep the seed from germinating, this is to make sure that the seed is in a safe environment to germinate.

In order to remove these substances, as well as kill off any molds or diseases that may be present in the seeds, we put the seeds through the process of fermentation. To do this, simply scoop out the seeds of the type of tomato you want to grow, and place them in a glass or plastic container (covered! fermentation doesn't often smell nice) and leave them at room temp. for 3-5 days mixing or swilling it around every day.

I'm using Yellow Pear Tomato seeds because I love their color and sweetness.

You might see some white mold appear, which is fine and could indicate that proper fermentation has occurred and you can clean the seeds!

To clean the seeds, simply fill the container with water and watch to see which seeds sink and which seeds float. The seeds that sink are good and healthy. The seeds that float are bad and need to be thrown away. Most of the pulp separates from the seeds during the fermentation process and floats up with the bad seeds. Simply drain off the water, rinse, and repeat.


After cleaning, let the seeds dry on a paper towel for a day or two. And then you can store them in a baggie until you're ready to plant!