Things You'll Need:
- a tomato
- a knife
- water
- a jar or cup to hold the water in
- dirt or garden soil
- a pan or pot to hold the dirt in
- a sunny windowsill
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Step 1
Cut open your tomato with the knife.
It's best to use overripe tomatoes, the riper the better. This is a good use for moldy, damaged, or bug-eaten tomatoes. -
Step 2
Scrape the seeds into the jar with your finger or the knife. Try to get as many seeds into the jar as possible. If some of the tomato gets in there, don't worry about it.
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Step 3
Add enough water to cover the seeds. Put the jar somewhere it won't get bumped over, the kitchen counter is fine.
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Step 4
Once a day, carefully pour out a bit of the water, being careful not to let any seeds get away. Replace the water you drained out with fresh water.
Do this for 5-7 days, or until the seeds have settled to the bottom and the water is clear. This process removes the clear coating on the tomato seeds, allowing them to germinate. -
Step 5
Put dirt into the pot or pan you have chosen. You can use a flower pot, plastic butter container (washed out), aluminum pie pan, or any other container you like.
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Step 6
Take the jar with the seeds and water in it and pour the seeds and water onto the dirt, making sure to get all the seeds out of the jar. If you like, you can sprinkle a little dirt on top of the seeds, but it's not necessary. Place the pot or pan somewhere the sun will shine on it.
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Step 7
Sprinkle water over the dirt once a day, or as needed to keep the dirt moist.
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Step 8
After about a week or so, you should see tiny plants growing! These will start with a set of two leaves. When they get their second set of leaves (about two to three weeks later), you can transplant them in clumps to their own pots. The best way to do that is to take a group of them, put them in an empty pot, then place dirt around them to fill the pot.
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Step 9
Water daily. Separate them and move the individual plants to larger pots when their roots extend from the bottom of the pot, each time putting each plant's root ball in the bottom of the empty larger pot then adding dirt around it.
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Step 10
Once the temperature is over 60F consistently in the spring (or any other time of the year when the temperatures are warm and likely to stay that way) you can plant your tomatoes in the ground. Dig a hole bigger than the root ball, put the root ball down into the hole, and fill around it with dirt, mounding up dirt around the stem. Cut off or support any vines that touch the ground, as this will prevent blight or damaged tomatoes from insects.
