How to store tomato seeds

A simple way to clean and store tomato seeds is to squeeze out the contents of the tomato and soak it in water, washing away any of this coating that surrounds the seed. You then dry the seeds on a paper towel and store.

Choose a sunny, sheltered spot, where you can plant them into a border (into soil that has had plenty of well-rotted garden compost added), or into 30cm pots, or put two or three plants in a growing bag.

Store the seeds.

Store them at a temperature between 32-41 degrees Fahrenheit. “I would store them in the refrigerator,” Tychonievich says. “You can freeze them, but they have to be really dry or they will be damaged by the freezing temperatures. The refrigerator is best.”

How many tomato seeds should I plant per hole? It’s ideal to plant two seeds per hole, the extra seed will work as an insurance when the other seeds fails to sprout.

With bad luck NONE will germinate. Tomato seeds must be very very low moisture to survive the freezer. However, we all get a few outdoors to germinate in the spring from the tomatoes that sat on the ground over winter. You will put a lot of work into getting seeds from them now with little results.

Store the seeds in a cool, dark, dry place. Refrigerating them is not necessary but that will ensure these conditions to enable your seeds to last the longest (that’s if you need them to last beyond a year or two).

Freezing seeds does not harm them, and can greatly extend their lifespan if done properly. All seed banks freeze their seeds intended for long term storage! Humidity is a greater concern with freezing, as a blast of warm humid air on frozen seeds can damage them.

ANSWER: Soaking your tomato seeds before planting, or letting them sprout on a damp paper towel, can help increase the rate of successful germination, resulting in more healthy plants that make it to your garden. To germinate tomato seeds on a paper towel, moisten a single paper towel so that it’s damp but not soaked.

For long–term storage—or if you don’t have a basement or cupboard with consistent temperatures—consider freezing (completely dry) seeds in a glass jar. The refrigerator is second-best, since temperatures aren’t as consistent there. This part is so important for keeping the quality of seeds!

Keeping your saved seeds

Store seeds in tightly sealed glass containers. You can store different kinds of seeds, each in individual paper packets, together in a large container. Keep seeds dry and cool. A temperature between 32° and 41°F is ideal, so your refrigerator can be a good place to store seeds.

Do seeds go bad with time, or can you plant them no matter how old they are? The answer is, yes, seeds will eventually go bad and no longer germinate, but it can take quite a long time. There is a good chance that those old seed packets will have a high percentage of seeds that will germinate just fine.

Never store seed in a plastic bag or air tight container. The moisture trapped will cause the seed to mold and ruin the sample. The bag should always be kept in a dry place. Once the collection is finished, it needs to be processed for storage.

Most Vegetable Seeds Can Stay Viable for Years

Most vegetable seeds remain good for about two to three years, but some, such as onions, deteriorate within a year and others such as lettuce, can successfully sprout after five years.

The simple answer is planting old seeds is possible and okay. No harm will come from using old seeds. The flowers or fruit that come from out-of-date seeds will be of the same quality as if they were grown from fresh seeds.

A dark closet in a cooler part of the house or a dry, cool basement are both good spaces to store seeds for a year or two. Once properly dried, seeds can also be sealed in airtight containers and stored in the refrigerator or freezer for several years. The seeds of some crops are naturally longer lived.

To keep the seeds cool (ideally, below 50 degrees), some people store them in a jar in their refrigerator or freezer. Seeds in good condition and stored properly will last at least one year and, depending on the plant, may last two to five years.

Place the envelope in a plastic zip bag and zip the bag shut, squeezing out as much air as possible. You can also use a Food-saver and vacuum seal them. Place the bag with the seeds into the back of the freezer where it won’t be disturbed. If you keep your seed in a cool place they will last up to 10 years.

Forget cryopreservation – hot and dry conditions might be all you need to awake far into the future. A date palm seed some 2000 years old – preserved by nothing more than storage in hot and dry conditions – has germinated, making it the oldest seed in the world to do so.

So, will expired seeds grow? Yes. Plants grown from expired seed packets will grow to produce healthy and fruitful harvests, just as their younger counterparts.

Tomato seeds are viable for an average of 4-6 years.

If you can keep them in a proper storage environment you might be able to sprout seeds that are many years older than that.

Number of Seeds Per Hole When Planting

Often, all seeds will sprout, but this is not a problem with these plants. You may leave them all to grow together. If all seedlings that sprout are not top quality, snip them off at the soil line instead of pulling, leaving the best seedling in place.