Vegetables

Can You Harvest Seeds From Store-bought Tomatoes?

Ill.: pure-flavor.com, Dictionary.com & brooklynfarmgirl.com, montage: laidbackgardener.blog

Question: Can I collect seeds from the tomatoes I buy in the supermarket and use them to grow my own tomatoes?

Thomas Ng

Answer: Yes, you can, but it might not be the best idea.

F1 tomatoes are identical; F2 tomatoes are variable.
All sorts of unexpected traits can show up in the second generation (F2) when you sow the seeds of a supermarket tomato (F1). Photo: freepngimg.com & Simply Fresh Fruit

Most tomatoes grown in supermarkets are F1 (first filial) hybrids, that is, are developed from a controlled cross between two different tomato lines. This is done because such hybrids often combine a host of desirable traits—better disease-resistance, faster growth, better shelf life, more even ripening, etc.—, plus they also have “hybrid vigor,” sort of a special mysterious and never fully explained shot of productivity that comes from crossing two unrelated strains. However, tomatoes grown from seed collected from an F1 hybrid (the supermarket tomato) result from the tomato flower crossing with itself and will be F2 (2nd filial or second generation) hybrids, showing a variable mix of traits—and not necessarily the best ones!—from the two parent lines and will no longer demonstrate hybrid vigor. Indeed, the resulting fruits can come in all shapes, sizes, colors and tastes.

Also, supermarket tomatoes were developed for good shelf life (that’s good) and the ability to travel well … not so desirable in a home garden tomato. Supermarket tomatoes often have a tough skin and rather hard texture, suitable to shipping long distances. That’s pretty much the opposite of the tomato you’ll probably want for your garden: a juicy, softer skinned tomato that melts in your mouth. And supermarket tomatoes are rarely chosen for their taste: in fact, many have a gene for uniform ripening that only comes at the cost of reduced taste. People have long complained that supermarket tomatoes are bland and flavorless: now you know why. I suspect you’d prefer delicious over bland.

Finally, supermarket tomatoes are usually developed for either greenhouse growing or, if purchased in winter, growing outdoors in a tropical climate not likely much like yours. So, they may not grow or mature well under your very different growing conditions.

Heirloom Supermarket Tomatoes

Mystery heirloom tomatoes in a plastic pack.
Supermarket heirloom tomatoes: yes, they’ll breed true, but true to what, exactly? You know nothing about them. Photo: lifeinthelittle.com

That said, some supermarkets do offer heirloom varieties of tomatoes. Not usually named varieties (the Fruit and Vegetable Department manager in my local supermarket mockingly calls them “mystery heirlooms”), but still. Heirloom tomatoes are not hybrids, but rather stable, non-hybrid varieties that will be true to type (“breed true”): that is, will give essentially identical tomatoes in the next generation … and each generation after that. They were usually chosen for better taste, among other criteria, and certainly not for adaptability to shipping. But if your tomato patch is practically right outside your back door, is that really a problem?

Even if you do find an heirloom tomato to use for seed, however, you still don’t know much about it. Is it determinate, requiring little staking, or indeterminate, with a tall stem needing major staking or a tomato cage? Is it an early tomato or a late one? Maybe too late for your short-season climate? You can’t tell that just by looking at a mystery heirloom tomato. That’s the kind of information you only get if buy a pack of tomato seeds with a description of the variety on the label.

How to Harvest Seed

So, whether you’re willing to risk sowing a regular supermarket tomato or you’ve found an heirloom tomato to start with, you’ve decided to harvest its seeds. Fine. Now you need to know how to do it. Not that it’s particularly complicated, but harvesting seed from a moist fruit like a tomato is a bit different than from a dry seed capsule like a poppy, a radish or zinnia.

You could simply scoop seeds out of the fruit, clean them roughly with a paper towel and let them air dry overnight before sowing, but you’ll get better results if you allow the gelatinous sheath surrounding the seed to decompose first. This is called fermentation. This step removes germination inhibitors, leading to faster and better germination and early growth. There is also some indication fermentation might also help prevent certain seed-borne diseases.

Here’s how to go about it.

  1. Cut the tomato open. 
Spoon scooping seeds from red tomato.
To harvest, just scoop some seeds out of the cut tomato. PennLive.com.com
  1. You’ll see numerous seeds surrounded by pulp in the cavities of the fruit. With a spoon, scoop out enough to meet your needs.
  2. Drop the seeds and pulp into a glass, jar or small bowl.
  3. Add enough water to cover well.
  4. You can cover the container with a cloth or paper towel to keep odors in (you did understand there would be fermentation, didn’t you?) and fruit flies out.
  5. Place the container in a warm spot where fermentation will occur. 
Tomato seeds fermenting in a glass jar.
During fermentation, the seeds will sink to the bottom and mold will form on top. Photo: Rural Sprout
  1. Over the next few days, probably about 3 to 5, the pulp will start to decompose and the seeds will begin to separate out, sinking to the bottom. Solids will rise and brown or white mold with a slightly unpleasant odor will form on the top. In between there’ll layer of watery, translucent liquid.
Remove the mold with a fork. Photo: The Spruce
  1. When the mold pretty much covers the surface, the seeds will be ready. Remove the mold with a fork.
  2. Add water and stir or shake, then let settle for a few minutes. 
  3. The good seeds will sink to the bottom, so you can then carefully pour off the excess liquids and solids on top. (They can go into the compost pile.)
Rinsing tomato seeds in a kitchen sieve.
Clean the seeds in a colander. Photo: The Spruce
  1. Pour the seeds into a colander and rinse with running water to clean them. Carefully rub the seeds against the mesh to remove any sticky remnants or remove any bits of pulp or mold by hand. 
Tomato seeds drying on a plate.
Dry the seeds before storing them. Photo: gardenbetty.com
  1. Spread the seeds on a smooth surface – a plate, wax paper, a tray, etc. – so they can dry and set in a warm, dry spot.
  2. Shuffle the seeds lightly with your fingers every day so they can dry evenly and to keep them from clumping together.
  3. When they’re thoroughly dry, you can store the seeds in a paper envelope or a pill bottle until it’s time to sow them. They’ll keep for 3 to 4 years, even more if you keep them cool. 

Sowing Tomato Seeds

Tomato seedlings in peat pots.
When it’s time to sow the seeds you harvested, just follow the instructions given here. Photo: diynetwork.com

When it comes to actually sowing your supermarket tomato seeds, first make sure it is the right time of the year (the number one error beginning gardeners make with growing tomatoes from seed is starting them too early!), usually 6 to 8 weeks before the last frost date in your area, then follow the steps in the article Grow your own tomatoes from seed: a guide for beginners.

So, can you harvest seeds from store-bought tomatoes? Sure. Should you? Well, that’s up to you to decide, but personally, I prefer to know the tomato varieties I sow, so I always start with purchased or exchanged seed from a reliable source that offers a complete description.

Garden writer and blogger, author of 65 gardening books, lecturer and communicator, the Laidback Gardener, Larry Hodgson, passed away in October 2022. Known for his great generosity, his thoroughness and his sense of humor, he reached several generations of amateur and professional gardeners over his 40-year career. Thanks to his son, Mathieu Hodgson, and a team of contributors, laidbackgardener.blog will continue its mission of demystifying gardening and making it more accessible to all.

11 comments on “Can You Harvest Seeds From Store-bought Tomatoes?

  1. Pingback: Grocery to Garden: Can You Grow Tomatoes from Store Bought

  2. Margie Dela Torre

    I put my tomatoes in a compost pile I had forgotten about them I planted flowers then the tomatoes started to come up they are growing tall and big but no flowers . I don’t know if they will produce .

  3. Richard M Merritt

    Years ago in college attempting to supplement my meager cash and living In the northern end of the sunny Sacramento Valley (Chico State).. Growing seeds from different melon’s and some squash?, planted too close I suppose…yielded some strange looking cantaloupe and honeydew… And some corn was like. Indian corn…fun times!

  4. I regularly grow seeds from supermarket tomatoes. The results are often interesting. This year I ended up with some very nice juicy red tomatoes (not thick skinned). Another plant produced a huge quantity of large yellow/green fruits – good cooked, but a little piquant raw.
    The plants are still producing (outdoors) in November (this is in the SE UK).

  5. Pingback: Collect Some Seeds From Your Garden - Laidback Gardener

  6. That’s a lot of work. Last October I bought some yellow tomatoes at the supermarket. While slicing noticed one seed was beginning to germinate. Thought, what the heck, planted the seed, aril and all, and nursed it through the winter. All winter it grew longer and longer, but did not branch out. Staked it in its pot, and by late November was getting flowers. First bunch of flowers yielded 2 tomatoes. They took until late February to ripen, mostly because of poor sunlight. Vine kept growing longer, as if in search of sun.

    By Spring, had eaten three tomatoes. Taste was great, but, as you warned, skin was thick. However, upon replanting outside, that baby took off like lightening! At present, near end of July, have counted 53 tomatoes, not including the ones I ate ripe or fried green. Skins much thinner now, flesh very juicy, and more tomatoes keep coming on. Branched out beautifully, and is now so long that it’s flopped far over my deck rail.

    This has been fun, enlightening, and inspired great respect for the tenacity and ability to thrive inherent in that tiny seed. If I find another germinating seed from a supermarket tomato, I’ll try again. I was out nothing but a pot, soil and my only sunny spot in the house. ?

  7. Other vegetables can be even stranger from seed. However, some of the supermarket squash are more stable from seed than those grown in the garden. They grow on farms with a whole bunch of the same sort that happily pollinate each other. In home gardens, they hybridize with squash that do not even seem to be closely related. I think you wrote about that earlier.

  8. I have had store bought tomato seeds come up, make normal size to fruit.

  9. re Harvest seeds….. I have a number of heirloom picked up over the years, and harvest the seeds each year to have a “fresh” supply. you outline pretty much what I do, but I would add a warning to step 12. NEVER put on a paper towel to dry. they stick, and have to re soak the whole towel to separate (so seeds are wet again!) made that mistake more than once.

    • Certainly true. That’s why I mentioned drying them only on a smooth surface. I should have specified!

    • I just took my dried sheets of paper towel with seeds that dried on them and tore off pieces of paper towel and planted the piece with seeds on it. I never fermented the seeds. Just rinsed and dried them on paper towel. They sprouted fine. I had to thin because there were too many seeds, but i stored sheets of paper towel easily with lots of dried seeds on them.

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