Saving Tomato seeds - What was your experience?

I am trying to save a few tomato seeds this year of those "special" tomato plants my family really liked this year. I have read about "fermenting" but thought it would be interesting to hear what others have done and how well it worked.

Fermenting means it is left in its own juice for awhile.

I used to save my tomato seeds but don't anymore. Why, because they don;t come true from seeds. Tomatoes are hybrids the reason they don;t come true. Likewise many flowers. Daylily and Iris comes to mind.

Walmart during 1998 was selling a cherry/salad tomato called Sweet Thing. It was the sweetest tomato I have ever tasted. I saved seeds and planted them the following season. Gave some to my daughter. Both of us got tomatoes of different types from those seeds, including Roma type, regular type, cherry type. Those came from genes over many interbreedings. Tomatoes tasted fine but not what I wanted. The cherry ones were very sweet. We both decided it wasn't worth it. My DD also saved seeds from an early type. Not all ripened early either. We now buy tomato seeds.

Well, that has me thinking. How do the people who grow tomatoes for the seed do it?
I can't say I was pleased by most of the tomatoes I grew from home collected seeds and received in trades. I thought they would be better, or at least have a better germination rate than store bought seeds. The only tomato I grew that I really liked (out of like 12 kinds) were the grape tomatoes.

Those who grow tomatoes for seeds to sell, do so under very strict conditions. The plants are grown in greenhouses under strict conditions.

You can't beat commercial seeds. There is no comparison to them. When you sow commercial seeds, you know what you are going to get. Not so with bee pollinated seeds. Both my daughter and I didn't think it was worth saving seeds. Too much energy, watering, etc goes into raising tomatoes whatever seeds you get. So, why not get the best which is the commercial type.

This goes for peppers and all veggies.

If you want to save pepper and tomatoes seeds that will come true, you need to use open pollinated seeds to begin with. They are also called Heirloom seeds. They aren't from hybrids. Peppers, Eggplants, Tomatoes and beans are self pollinating meaning that they are not pollinated by insects and each flower has male and female parts. Check out the tomato forum almost all of us start our own seeds some hybrid, some O/P some commercial, some saved. I have purchased many seeds that didn't come true...growers aren't as careful as we are lead to believe.

Sweet Thing is a hybrid tomato, so the seeds will not come true.

My daughter decided to try saving some seed from our favorite tomato plants. But honestly I don't think I'd bother with it (she has a degree and bio-chemistry so the fermentation intrigued her). It will be a good experiment to see if they come true. I think most if not all my tomatoes were heirlooms, but I did have many varieties in one small space.
I'm not convinced about commercial seed, however I am not much of a vege gardener and I can see why commercial seed is the way to go. Flowers are a lot easier to find not hybridized. When I went to buy some seed from Geoseed, which also sells wholesale, I was amazed at the number of sunflowers that did not produce seed. Sorry but I have no use for a sunflower that doesn't make pollen. I grow flowers for the bees,the butterflies, and the birds. Not for my dining table.

Thanks for the update. Commercial seeds are the only way to go if you want hybrids. I think I misread some of this thread...I didn't realize that seeds from store bought tomatoes were being discussed, I thought it was store bought PLANTS. Lol There isn't one veggie in the supermarket that I would grow and expect to come true from seed, almost, if not all are hybrids. They ship better and store longer. Almost all I grow are veggies. Finding non hybridized seed is very easy...but if that's not your thing that's fine, everybody has their own interest.

Fermenting is easy. If your daughter's seeds don't do well it might be bc they were hybrids or hybridized. I have a large garden but always seem to try to squeeze more in then really needs to be.

I was taught that open pollinated seeds (OP) means the seeds are from bees pollinating the flower, thus does not come true if the plant is a hybrid to begin with. This is how hybrids are made that gives us beautiful new irises and daylilies. On the other hand, I hybridize daylily and irises fro named cultivars and from the seeds the seedlings will be completely different, which is what I want.

On the other hand, if the plant is a natural plant variety and not a hybrid, seeds grown on such plant will come true if hand pollinated with its own pollen under strict conditions, and protected from bees. Seeds from that plant will come true from seeds.

I used to grow an early tomato called Bonnie Best during the 80's. Even in zone 4 I got tomatoes in July. That tomato have been replaced I think with Early Girl but there is no comparison. I have grown Early Girls also. As far as I am concerned, there is no true tomato variety anymore due to the many generations of pollination to produce that "perfect" tomato, whatever that is.

I Googled BB and came across one website that claimed to sell it but could not promise 100% that it was true to name.

Commercial seeds are your best bet in flowers or vegetable because they will come true from seeds. The seeds have been produced under strict conditions whether hybrid or not. They have to come true or the company that produce the seeds and sells them to seed companies for resale would quickly go out of business. Parks Seeds import many of their seeds from Europe. I have purchased seeds from them for many years and never had a problem.

Below is an iris seedling (first photo) that I produced by crossing parents SAMURAI WARRIOR x DARCY'S CHOICE. Both irises are hybrids as is the seedling, which is under evaluation to be registered .

Bonnie Best is offered in most of my seed cataloges as an O/P tomato. Early Girl is also available but it's a hybrid. They are both in DG plantfiles

Which of your seed catalogs are Bonnie Best offered? I haven't seen it offered since the 1980 catalogs.

I've seen it spelled Bonny and Bonnie, its in Totally Tomatoes, Baker Creek Heirloom seeds-rareseeds.com, Reimer and Sustainable Seeds. It might be sold elsewhere but that's just what I know off the top of my head.

Just found them listed in the Pinetree Catalog, www.superseeds.com. I've never bought anything from them but they get good reviews.