Save Your Tomato and Pepper Seeds Before the First Frost

Save Your Tomato and Pepper Seeds Before the First Frost

Are your tomato and pepper plants looking tired as the nights get colder? Before you pull them and toss them on the compost pile, take twenty minutes to save seed from your best ones. It's free, it's easy, and it's the whole point of growing heirlooms. In this guide, you'll learn which plants to save from, how to save tomato seed with a simple fermenting step and how to dry and store pepper seed.

Why save seeds from heirlooms?

Heirloom varieties are open-pollinated, so they grow true from seed. The tomato that thrived in your soil, through your season, has already proven itself in your garden. Save its seed year after year, and you're slowly selecting plants that suit your backyard even better.

Here in Minnesota, zone 5a, the first fall frost can show up any week once October arrives, so it's worth getting seed saved before the first cold snap.

Which plants should you save seed from?

  • Open-pollinated only: Seed from hybrids won't grow true. Every variety we sell is open-pollinated, so it's all fair game.
  • Your healthiest plants: Skip plants that struggled with disease all season.
  • Your best fruit: Choose the earliest, best-tasting, most typical fruits of the variety.
  • Fully ripe fruit: Seeds mature as fruit ripens, so use fully ripe or even overripe fruit.

How to save tomato seeds

Tomato seeds are wrapped in a gel coat that keeps them from sprouting inside the fruit. A short fermentation removes it, just like a fallen tomato rotting on the ground would.

  1. Scoop: Cut the tomato in half and squeeze the seeds and pulp into a small jar or cup.
  2. Add water: Add a splash of water to loosen the pulp.
  3. Ferment: Set it somewhere warm and out of the way for about 2 to 3 days, stirring once a day. A layer of white mold on top is normal.
  4. Rinse: Fill the jar with water and stir. Good seeds sink. Pour off the pulp and floating seeds, then rinse the rest in a fine strainer.
  5. Dry: Spread seeds on a paper plate, a ceramic plate or a piece of window screen. Let them dry for about a week, until they're brittle.

How to save pepper seeds

Peppers are even easier. No fermenting needed.

  1. Pick ripe: Use peppers that have reached their full mature color, usually red, yellow or orange.
  2. Scrape: Cut the pepper open and scrape the seeds onto a plate. Wear gloves for hot peppers!
  3. Dry: Let seeds dry in a well-ventilated spot for about a week, stirring now and then.

A note on crossing: Peppers cross-pollinate more easily than tomatoes. If you grew several pepper varieties close together, some seed may be crossed. For pure seed, cover a few flower buds with fine mesh bags before they open, then mark those peppers for saving.

Tips for drying and storing seeds

  • Skip paper towels: Wet seeds stick to them and are hard to remove. Plates or screens work better.
  • Dry completely: Seeds should snap, not bend. Damp seeds can mold in storage.
  • Label everything: Write the variety, the year and anything special about the plant.
  • Store cool and dry: Keep seeds in labeled envelopes inside an airtight jar in a cool, dark place. Well-stored tomato seed often stays good for 4 to 6 years or more, and pepper seed for about 2 to 3.

Good varieties to save seed from

  • Cherokee Purple Tomato (about 80 days from transplant): a much-loved heirloom with rich flavor, and a great one to keep going year after year.
  • Roma Tomato (about 75 to 80 days): a dependable paste tomato with plenty of seed in every fruit.
  • California Wonder Pepper (about 70 to 75 days from transplant): a classic bell pepper. Let a few turn fully red before saving seed.

Why save seed when packets are so affordable?

Honestly? Because it makes you a better gardener. You start paying attention to which plants really earned their keep, and over a few seasons your saved seed gets better suited to your garden. And if you ever run short of a favorite, our packets start at just 99¢.

Twenty minutes for next year's garden

Those plants are done either way once frost hits. A few minutes today turns your best fruit into next spring's seedlings. All our seed is non-GMO and USA grown, and I pack every packet myself here in Minnesota.

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