FAQ

Saving seed from open pollinated tomatoes is a simple process. You can save money because you don't have to buy packaged hybrid seeds next year.  For saving seeds choose open-pollinated tomato varieties, not F1 varieties.

You will need: 

  • Tomatoes 
  • Knife, spoon
  • Paper towel
  • Glass jar 
  • Sieve 
  • paper plate
  • Paper envelope 

Step 1: Choose a couple of healthy tomatoes. When the tomatoes are very ripe, pick them off the plant.

Step 2: Halve the tomatoes and scoop the seeds out into a shallow jar of water. Cover with paper towel. The seeds are purified using a simple wet fermentation process. This is necessary in order to remove the gelatinous coating ont he tomato seed, which can prevents germination. 

Step 3: Fermentation is complete when the seeds sink to the bottom of the jar. Pour the seeds into a sieve and wash them thoroughly with water. 

Step 4: Arrange the seeds on paper plate to dry out. Paper towels are not suitable for this purpose. Once the seeds have dried out thoroughly, store them in a paper envelope in a dark, cool place until spring. Make sure they’re clearly labelled.

 

Self-sustaining farming is producing most or all of your food on your own land with little to no external inputs or help from other people or organizations.

Many modern vegetable varieties are specially bred as F1 hybrids. These seeds promise better uniformity and other desirable traits such as disease resistance. The new seeds of F1 hybrids can only be produced within a highly controlled environment, from two separate parent varieties that are kept isolated and then crossed – usually by hand. This makes them expensive and unsustainable. Hybrid plants increase farmers’ reliance on seed companies and therefore are subject to changes in prices and discontinuations. These varieties can also lead to a loss of diversity if open-pollinated varieties are not maintained. Additionally, hybrid seeds tend to be more expensive in comparison to open-pollinated varieties due to the maintenance of the two distinct inbred parent lines.

You can save seed from hybrid plants although we do not recommend it. It is important to note, however, that the plants you grow from these saved seeds from F1 hybrids  will carry the genetics from both ‘parents’ and may display different characteristics than you are expecting. Plants that grow from seed saved from hybrid plants generally are less vigorous, more variable, and usually have smaller blossoms and yield less than their parents.

Heirloom vegetables are open-pollinated, non-hybrid cultivar. By contrast heritage varieties are all open pollinated using parents of the same variety, so there is no need to isolate the parent plants from each other. This makes open-pollinated seeds a lot cheaper, and while the plants they produce may be less uniform.

Open-pollinated seeds are more diverse than hybrid varieties because the pollination process is left to nature. This may lead to an increase in survival rate and can be advantageous in the event of a newly emerged plant epidemic or other extreme stressors that hybrids are not bred to withstand. Open-pollinated seeds allow growers to save their own seeds. Their lack of uniformity can be disadvantageous for marketing purposes and growers using large machinery.

Continuously selecting the best plants from an open-pollinated variety may promote a population adapted to local conditions.