I agree. Volunteer tomates have been hardened off naturally and know when the right time is to come up. I do think you should label though. Take a rotton tomato that if freshly fallen and put it somewhere specific. Stick a plant label in the ground and label the variety. If you only have one hybrid, then I assume the rest are heirlooms. In which case, that's even more reason to label. If you don't, that's how varieties become extinct. If you really, really want healthy tomato plants, grafted tomatoes are amazing. There are three plants in the master gardener demonstration vegetable garden that are totally healthy, and MONSTEROUSLY HUGE.

Hi all - my method is pretty much like Maryliz's - courtesy of Organic Gardening magazine several years back..... I squeeze out the gel & seeds from the tomatoes I want to save seed from - into a clear glass custard cup, juice glass or small jar, add some water & cover loosely w/ a piece of foil & set it on my kitchen windowsill, over the sink & watch it until a scummy mold forms on top & most of the seeds sink to the bottom.This takes several days or a week, depending on how warm it is.When it's ready, I peel off the 'skin' & dump the rest into a fine mesh sieve & rinse well under the tap, then drain & knock the seeds off onto a china saucer & spread them out to dry.I usually put a little scrap of paper w/ the variety name on the plate too. I let them dry (inside, in a corner of my 'dining room')for a week or 2 & then store in labelled & dated pill bottles or mini zip bags.

When I was researching to save tomato seeds, I read that the fermentation process that "eats" the gelatinous sac is also one of God's ways of protecting the seeds--the fungus that eats the gel actually helps stave off some diseases for the eventual plant. I have had the problem of saving tomato seeds and some of them have sprouted before the gel sacs were gone from others--you can't save sprouted seeds for later sowing, but could sow them if they've sprouted. I won't save the other seeds that are still in their gel sac though, because there's the possibility that the seeds may have whatever possible disease, and I would think that would go ditto for "in-the-tomato-fermented-seeds." Better safe than sorry, and you never know if the sprouted seeds carry a disease that can be transferred to other neighboring plants, or even the soil and subsequent years. Tomatoes growing out of tomatoes is pretty cool, though!

Carolyn, I'm sorry I didn't see your post before this, I have not been on the forum for a while. That was a typo of the purple cherry, it should have read black cherry. I haven't had a purple cherry tomato since I was a about 12 or 13. My grandfather decided to try a couple of plants on the farm to experiment with. 4 plants where tried and he use us, the grandkids and lovers of all tomatoes, as the taste testers, especially my younger brother. My brother was known as he "human garbage pail". He ate anything and everything and nothing ever tasted bad to him UNTIL The day he tasted the purple cherry tomato. Total shock with his reaction. He spit it out and drank a gallon of water to get rid of the taste. Grandpa thought the tomato might not have been ripe enough, on the other hand, little brother was known to rip off a green tomato and eat it as if it where an apple. As you stated, the longer it was on the vine, the worse the taste, almost rancid it was so acidic. We all tasted them with the same reaction as my brother. Grandpa proceeded to rip out is try of toms and we never saw or tried them again. I must say, though, it was his only failed attempt at trying new and different tomatoes. Fran