[EthosSeedCompany]

If you always wanted to save seeds from your own heirloom tomato plants but were too intimidated to try, then fear no longer!

Just read on this simple and yet complete guide to tomato seed saving. It's really not that hard!

Just as an example, I processed the following tomato seeds today:

• Green Giant
• Chadwick Cherry
• German Lunchbox
• German Pink
• Sunshine Bumblebee

Not bad! Not bad! Here's a picture of some of the final product:

 

[harrylee]

I do plan on trying to save some tomato seeds this year. One is a California Gold tomato. The question I have is, do I have to worry about cross pollination of the seeds I collect as they are next to some Beefsteak plants?

 

[EthosSeedCompany]

Tomatoes are inbreeding plants and the anatomy of the flower dictates the risk for cross-pollination. If the style is retracted them there is little risk that the flower will be receptive to pollen from other sources, but nothing is 100% in nature!

As a general rule, if in doubt, I always recommend to bag the flowers. It's pretty easy to do and then there is no risk at all that the next generation is an accidental hybrid.