Admittedly, home-grown vegetables taste best. Fortunately, many types of vegetables can be grown easily from home-grown seeds. This includes, among other things, tomatoes. In today's article we will explain to you how you can harvest the tomatoes and store the seeds correctly so that you can grow them in the spring.
Obtaining seeds: Which tomato varieties are best?
Not all tomato varieties are suitable for harvesting seeds. It is therefore very important to grow seed-resistant varieties in the garden. This is the only way to ensure that they pass on their genetic material. Although hybrids give high yields in the first year, they cannot produce a healthy new generation. These are, for example:
- Cocktailtomaten Sorten “Black Cherry”, “Tom Red”, “Resi”, “Ruthje”
- Beef tomato varieties “Berner Rose”, “Black Brandywine”, “Evergreen”, “Geante de Tézier” “Yellow Russian”, “Lilac”, “Ochsenherz”, “Purple Calabash”
- Tomatoes “Amish Pasta”, “Adenhorn”, “Little Red Riding Hood”
In garden centers you can find so-called organic seeds. These are only seed-resistant varieties, because hybrids or the so-called F1 varieties are not available in organic quality.
If you alreadyTomatoes planted from organic seedsthen you can use their fruits to obtain seeds. For the seeds you need fully ripe tomatoes from healthy parent plants.
Harvesting the ripe tomatoes: This care work makes sense in July
Outdoor tomatoes are usually ready to harvest from the end of July / beginning of August. Tomatoes grown in the greenhouse can also be ready to harvest earlier. You can help a little by cutting off all new flowers after mid-July. The fruits of such flowers do not fully ripen until the end of the gardening season anyway. It therefore makes more sense to remove these late fruit buds to relieve the pressure on the plants.
In July, it is also important to fertilize and water your tomato plants regularly. If the plants are watered at irregular intervals, the fruits can burst.
When are the tomatoes ready to harvest?
The fruits are ready to harvest when their skin turns red, orange or yellow. To be on the safe side, you can check by lightly pressing the base of the handle. Ripe fruits can be removed. Do not cut the leaves.
You can store the fruits in a well-ventilated room. It is best not to store it under direct sunlight, but also not in a completely dark place.
If you wish, you can put the tomatoes in the refrigerator half an hour before eating and let them cool down. But don't leave the fruit in the fridge for too long so that it doesn't lose its aroma.
Harvesting tomatoes and getting the seeds: instructions
There are a few things you should consider when choosing the parent plant: It should be healthy and have borne plenty of fruit. The fruits themselves should not be deformed and taste delicious. Select several ripe tomatoes. You also need a knife, a glass, kitchen paper and small opaque jam jars with screw-in lids. Proceed as follows:
1. Halve a tomato and remove the seeds and pulp.
2. Pour the pulp and seeds into an empty and clean jam jar and pour tap water over them. Then screw in the lid, place the jar in a warm room and wait for about 16 to 20 hours. The seeds are covered with mucus. This special protective layer prevents them from germinating. After several hours in the water, the mucous layer is dissolved. You will notice that the seeds are no longer floating in the water but have fallen to the ground.
3. Then is the right time to take the seeds out of the water and put them in a sieve and rinse them.
4. Line the work surface with kitchen paper or newspaper and spread the seeds on it. It's best to let it dry overnight.
5. Place the dry seeds in a light and airtight jar and store in a cool and dry place in the house. The seeds can stay there until you pre-germinate them next year.
Tomatoes are usually ready to harvest from the end of July / beginning of August. You can recognize the fully ripe fruits because they have a shiny, red or orange colored skin that quickly gives way when lightly pressed. If the tomatoes are cracked or have burst open, you should not use them and get seeds from them. The same applies if the fruits are still green, difficult to separate from the stem and feel hard.
Fully ripe fruits that not only have an appetizing aroma but also taste great can be used to obtain seeds. To do this, loosen the seeds, put them in a glass of water and wait about 10 to 20 hours until the protective layer has dissolved. Then spread the seeds out on newspaper and let them dry. Air and light tight untiluntil next springstore.
