At WinterSown we practice and share safe-seed saving of tomatoes to deter and prevent the spread of disease from external seed-borne pathogens.

The Baggie Variation is a more hands-on approach to safely saving tomato seeds but takes just fifteen minutes. We gratefully acknowledge this excellent contribution to the tomato community and thank a 'Friend of WinterSown' for granting permission to share their time-saving method.

Baggie Variation

Clean Tomato Seeds

Copyright Statement

Yes Trudi, I reuse the drying plates. Some of them have so many names on them it's confusing. I've used Comet and Ajax and the 'easy rinse formula' above does leave me clear water and seed a little faster than Comet.

A special note...

At WinterSown we believe in preserving original documentation and so these pictures and text are presented as shared to us by our 'Friend' who shared their method in late October of 2009.

Use Tip's Links at the end of the photos to learn more about what you've read on this page.

Normally, I just dump the seed directly into the baggie, but the camera made the little bowl necessary. The picture below is key to what makes this method so simple. I added a little water and work with the baggie on a diagonal so all the seed sinks into a corner.

I drained that murky water and added more a couple times before adding a bit less and the Ajax -- a good two teaspoons of Ajax went into this. And the ten year old massaged the seed so I could get a pic.

Then it rested for about 15 minutes

Then I add water to about half full, make sure it's sealed tight and give it a good shake. You have to wait a few seconds to let the seed settle to that corner before continuing to drain and clean.

The next picture is what makes this method fast and easy. I fill the baggie and drain, as pictured, repeatedly until the water runs clear. You may want to pinch and poke at that seed in the bottom corner to dislodge anything stubborn, but a dozen drain and fills can be performed in a couple minutes. Sorry about the pic quality the bag wouldn't stop moving with me draining it one handed and trying to get a pic with the other and the ten year old was off in Wii land.

The important thing is that seed stays sunk in the corner while you rinse and drain. You may lose a few floaters and really that just depends on how fast you work and how careful you are. A bunch of the Yellow Pear seed was tiny and floating. I needed a third arm to take the pics so I lost a little seed this time, but generally I lose less than five seeds when I doing a couple hundred, and that's not something I worry about because the seed shouldn't have been floating.

Once it's clear...

It gets dumped into a screen strainer, sorry no pic, put under the faucet without the baggie, and onto a plate to dry somewhere warm and safe.

I don't have any idea if one method is better than another and I have no interest in debating seed saving methods. I've tried several ways, they all seem to work just fine for me. I have yet to fail a germination test from my own seed though Traveler and Japanese Black Trifele are fussy. One was fermented and the other cleansed as below. I currently have seedlings from seed saved by TSP, cleanser, fermentation, and Oxyclean. They're all great. Below is the easiest method I could think of, so that's what I do for now.

Okay Trudi and anyone else interested in my simple baggie method. I had to look around here at Halloween to see if any OPs were ripening fruit from which I have yet to save seed, and to no surprise Yellow Pear fir the description. I nearly chose to save F2 Husky Cherry Reds, but I can't help myself, I eat those little dudes as soon as they fo deep red, so I'm air layering that plant instead.

How to Clean and Save Tomato Seeds
WinterSown's Method
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