If you cut the tomato around the ‘equator’ it will be easier to get the seeds out:
Use a teaspoon to dig out the seeds. Be careful to leave as much goo in the tomato, or it will get in your way later on in the process:
Fill a glass with about 3 cm (1 inch) of water and put the seeds in the water:
The mix will now have to ferment, so a piece of cling film is needed on top of the glass to limit the oxygen. Prick a couple of holes to create a bit of ventilation though:
Leave the mix for 3 or 4 days and any unwanted goo will start to dissolve:
Healthy seeds will fall to the bottom of the glass making it easier to remove the goo with a tablespoon and add fresh water:
Remove the red stuff and add fresh water a couple of times during the fermenting process and you’ll end up with this:
The seeds will still be coated with gel. I believe it’s some kind germination inhibitor. Being in the water for some time makes the gel easy to scrub off by dragging each seed across the filter bag with a finger:
Move the seeds to a new filter bag and let them dry for a couple of days. Here is the end result, ready for storage in a seed bag until spring:
Note that I have not tested if these seeds will actually germinate and produce plants, but I must say that the result looks very professional.
I’m very excited to find out what the tomato plants from these seeds will look like next year, and if they themselves will be able to reproduce.
Perfect…this answered my questions about tomatoes…
It really does make it much easier to convey points with both text and photos.
@Sandra: Glad to hear that you found something useful. It’s more work to describe it like this, but the result is much better. Video would probably be even easier to learn from, but takes even more work to produce. Not quite there yet, but hopefully someday… 😉
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