"keepitlow", Yes, you certainly can grow them by direct seed sowing in the garden. I have done it most of my life. Although the plants seem to be a bit behind in their size at first, the in-ground ones soon catch up and even surpass the ones I babied all winter in the greenhouse. They are sturdier and healthier. Here's what I do: I dig some compost and composted manure into the soil in a chosen spot in the garden. I then sink a bottomless large pot into this prepared ground up to within and inch of the top rim. I use the top half of a 2 or 3 gallon black plastic pot, but you could use any size or type of plastic container, like a gallon ice cream bucket for instance or even a cottage cheese container. Sprinkle on your seeds, spacing them about two inches apart so their roots won't become entangled. Lightly cover them with some compost and press them into the soil. Then gently water them in, being careful not to wash them out of their positions. Cover the inside of the pot with straw, chopped leaves, pine straw or dried grass clippings to hold moisture in the soil. Sprinkle them occasionally to keep the soil just damp. You don't need to do anything else. Nature will take care of the rest. In the Spring when the soil is warm enough and the night temps are more stable, those little guys will come up and grow. They grow really fast, too. When they get two sets of true leaves, transplant them out where you want them to grow. Do this on a cloudy day when there is little or no wind for best results. I set mine in bottomless pots in the ground. You can use large coffee cans or any kind of large pot or container, even cat litter buckets work great, but cut off the bottoms and sink them down into the ground where you intend to plant your tomatoes, leaving them about 3 inches above the soil level. Then when you water them through the growing season, all you do is fill up the pots a couple of times - no wasted water. It all goes to each tomato plant. When I feed them, all the good stuff goes right to the plants. I put a cardboard cylinder collar around each one to protect them from cutworms. I use toilet paper roll cylinders, paper towel roll cylinders or even the cylinders from gift wrap for the plant collars. Cut them into 2 inch collars. (I am big on recycling things). Cutworms can't wrap around and chew through your tender plants. I do this with all my newly planted veggies, like cabbages, broccoli, and peppers, and even tender bedding plants and flowers, like petunias and asters. Eventually the little cardboard collars will disintegrate, so no need to remove them, and by that time the stems of your veggies will be too tough for cutworms to chew through. I have found that tomato plants grown from seed in the ground are much sturdier and hardier than in-house or greenhouse plants. Even when there came a late cold front, they did just fine, whereas my greenhouse plants got nipped pretty badly. Give it a try. Seeds don't cost much and if it works for you, it is definitely worth a try. No pampering tomato plants through the winter and wondering if it is time to set them out. When the ground is warm enough, you'll know because they will come up. I sow them outside in March when the moon is in the right phase and the sun sign (astrological sign) is in the best house - the most fertile, moist signs, like Scorpio or Pisces. Consult your 2009 Farmer's Almanac for "best growing days for ABOVE Ground Crops". It really does make a big difference. The great thing about direct seed sowing anything is that you do not have to "harden them off". They harden off as they grow out of the soil. :) Hope this helps. ~ Annie

early ssabukis aliana goji faranji Awesome tomatoes! ESA is a cropping machine with loads of small yellow plums. Goji Faranji makes big wonking beefsteaks, sometimes they are a bit ruffly-but this I think is related to hotter weather and when it cools down a bit then the fruits are smoother. If you let GF mature completely on the vine it's incredibly delicious. It's fine too if you pick them a bit green and let ripen on the counter, but leave it on the vine until it feels like a baby's tushie when you squeeze it and you have tomato nirvana.

Hello surfpnsbch, The grape tomatoes that you purchased may not grow true to type if they are hybrid tomatoes (many that are sold in stores are hybrid.) There are some store bought tomatoes that will grow true to type, but the only one I know of for sure is the "Santa Sweets" variety. You are of course, welcome to try saving the seeds, they might come true, but modern hybrids have several parent lines and the seeds could revert to any of them and not be the tasty one you saved for. But they might not be bad either. That's half the fun. If you know they are an heirloom or open pollinated variety, then you are set as they are most likely to grow true to type unless they have been crossed. If you are saving just a few, you may want to just dry them on a plate or paper towel without fermenting. A better option would be to clean them in a strainer with a disinfectant cleanser. I've linked to Wintersown.org's flyer on saving tomato seeds that way. (The point of the ferment in the article on how to save tomato seeds from the seed saving forum below is to not only break down the germination inhibiting gel around the seeds, but to reduce the pathogens that might be on the seeds.) As to how long saved seeds last, a lot depends on the storage methods. There are several people on the forums who have been able to germinate seeds that are more than 10 years old (I have) and I believe Carolyn137 (Carolyn Male) has germinated some much older than that. In general though, most of us try to save fresh seeds every 3-5 years since fresher seeds will germinate better. Hope that helps. Betsy Here is a link that might be useful: How to Save Tomato Seeds using disinfectant cleanser

While it is really somewhat questionable to plant seeds from what are almost certainly hybrid tomatoes, since what you get may be a formally edible but unexciting fruit, it should be understood that planting seeds straight out of a plant is not optimal for germination. Mature seeds should be fermented, by placing them in water with some of the pulp and left in a warm place for a week. Then wash off the icky stuff and dry. Tomato seed harvesters know this strategy well. Here's why. When seeds mature, they are naturally encased in a protective gel coating. This is the slippery coating around seeds when they come out of the fruit. That gel coating has a hormone called abscisic acid that actually inhibits germination. That's why when you crack open a mature fruit, the seeds aren't all already sprouting! Microbial fermentation is an easy way to break down that gel, metabolize abscisic acid, and allow germination. Not all seeds have this protective gel. Solanacea and Cucumis commonly do. Some may say that, hey, I can plant mature seeds without fermentation, and they grow fine! That's because sitting moist in soil, especially anaerobically, the gel will break down naturally, But it will require more time, and may not work completely. That gel is natures way of making sure that new seeds don't sprout in the winter, but will wait a while, ideally until spring. FWIW, fermentation can also kill off disease spores.