So what does one do after they have mastered the art of growing tomatoes? They move on to the next best thing ofcourse, which in this case would be heirloom tomatoes. Most people tend to stay away from heirloom stuff because they cannot be bothered to collect the seeds or do not know how to harvest heirloom tomato seeds.

What are heirloom tomatoes? They can be put into 4 categories four which are family heirlooms, commercial heirlooms, mystery heirlooms, and created heirlooms. They tend to have a better taste, but often have a shorter shelf life. However, as far as diseases are concerned they tend to be more resistant than the commercial varities.

Here’s What You’ll Need:

• heirloom tomatoes
• sharp knife
• glass or plastic container
• water
• spoon
• fine strainer
• paper plate
• mason jar
• marker

Make sure you are using tomatoes that have been washed, cut them into halves parallel to the end with the stem. Squeeze out the juice and seeds into a plastic container or glass that you have alreadly labelled using the marker. Once the container is half full, place it in an area away from direct sun for about 3 to 5 days.

When a whitish looking mold appears on the surface, scrape it off with a spoon without removing the seeds. Add water to the glass, until it is full and stir. The good seeds should sink to the bottom, floating seeds and pulp to the top. Repeat this a few more times before finally pouring the good seeds through a strainer.

Drain well, before setting your seeds out on the paper plate. Let them dry away from the sun for between 24 to 72 hours. Stir them at least twice a day to prevent them from sticking together. Once dried you can store your seeds in properly labelled mason jars in a cool place, until you are ready to plant them.

You can follow step by step instructions on Sunset blog, here…

How To Harvest Heirloom Tomato Seeds

You can watch the video below on how to harvest heirloom tomato seeds…

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