Free the seed: Growing tomatoes from seed with incredible results

I love gardening, and I love free stuff. One of the most exciting discoveries I made in my life was realizing I could get many of the seeds for growing plants for free, and so can you. The ‘Free the seed’ series is all about how to get free seeds and how to get them germinated. Comprehensive ‘how-to guides’ will also be available on how to care for each seed after they have sprouted. 

In today’s free the seed, we will see how to get free tomato plants from the very same tomatoes we have in our fridge. 

Difficulty level: 1 Basic. 

What you will need;

a knife, a teaspoon, a paper towel, a small pot with drainage holes, some stones, 

Step by step instructions;

1. Cut a tomato in half (kids get your parents to do this step)
2. Scrap out the seeds with a teaspoon.
3. Place the seeds onto a dry paper towel. 
4. Use another sheet of paper towel to dry the seeds further. 
5. Wrap the seeds in the paper towel for 24 hours.
6. Put the paper towel with the seeds in a dry, sunny place. 
7. Prepare the small pot by placing some small stones at the bottom,
8. fill the pot with soil
9. after 24 hours the seeds are dry, and now ready for planting. 
10. Make a small hole in the soil about 0.5cm deep.
11. Place 3-4 seeds in each hole.
12. Water thoroughly after planting.

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You will note that the seeds in tomatoes come inside small liquid sacks. It Protects them from germinating within the tomato. Only when the tomato falls from the plant, do the sacs dry out, allowing the new seeds to germinate. Break open or dry the sack with the seed inside using a paper towel to prepare for planting. 

Please note; I use a small amount of organic potting mix for this stage and never use garden soil. The reason i don’t use garden soil for seedlings is that it often drains poorly and may harbor disease organisms. 

I have read from a few sources that it’s always better to grow direct from new packets of seeds. I am going to do another blog post about growing plants with store-bought seeds vs. homegrown seeds from a tomato in my fridge. We can then compare the yields. I will post a photo here of the seeds I have just germinated once the plant reaches full maturity so we can see how they got on.

Good luck and get in touch in you need any help!