July 17, 2019

Turn Your Old Tomatoes into a TON of New Tomato Plants

Your intentions were good, you bought some healthy produce to start making salads with, but one thing led to another and you kind of forgot about it. Fast forward a week or two and you notice you have some tomatoes that have been sitting in your kitchen for a while and unfortunately it looks like they’re past their prime…Instead of throwing them away, learn how to turn those old tomatoes into a ton of new tomato plants!!

It’s super easy to do and all you need is a couple supplies. Follow along and you’ll have a whole bunch of new tomato plants in no time. In fact, you may never have to buy tomatoes again!

SUPPLIES

-Some old (or fresh) tomatoes

-Any sort of starter pots with a drainage hole (I re-purposed some clean yogurt containers and used a drill to put a hole in the bottom)

-Your favorite seed starting mix

Only a few supplies are needed to propagate your tomatoes

Are you ready to turn some old tomatoes into a bunch of new tomato plants? Great! Let’s get started.

STEP 1- Prepare your starter pots

If you already have some small starter pots with drainage holes, great. If not, no problem. Go into your recycling bin and grab a couple of small plastic containers.

In the spirit of recycling & sustainability, I’ve re-purposed some clean, empty yogurt containers. Take your container, flip it over and put a drainage hole in the bottom, either with a drill or something sharp and pointy. BE CAREFUL!

Put a drainage hole in the bottom of your container. I used some clean yogurt cups

Now fill the starter pot about 3/4 full with the seed starting mix of your choice.

Fill your starter pots about 3/4 full with potting soil

STEP 2- Collect your tomato seeds

Now, you will carefully cut your tomatoes in half and scoop out all of the seeds with a spoon. Don’t worry about all the liquid, it’s totally fine.

STEP 3- Plant your tomato seeds

Now it’s time to sow your seeds. Place a spoonful of the seeds/liquid into a pot on top of the soil and spread it evenly. Repeat this until you’ve used all of the seeds. Cover the seeds with a thin layer of soil and soak with water.

Scoop the seeds into your pots and spread them out as best you can

The seeds should be spread out in an even layer

Now cover them with a thin layer of soil. Soak them with water

STEP 4- Give them warmth and direct light

Place your pots in a warm environment (around 70 degrees F). The seeds will germinate and push up through the soil within a few days.

The first tomato seedlings are beginning to emerge

Once they pop up, the seedlings will require direct light. If you plan to keep them outside, place them somewhere with 6-8 hours of direct sunlight. If you are planning to keep them indoors, they will probably require more than a bright windowsill. Place them under direct light.

A fluorescent or LED light should work fine. Avoid incandescent. I have a grow rack with T8 LED shop lights, but a desk lamp pointed directly over your pots will work great.

Make sure to keep your pots moist by watering about once a day.

STEP 5- Thin your tomato plants

After a week or so, you will have a ton of seedlings in each of your pots. This is exciting, but you will need to thin them out to give the strongest ones enough space to thrive.

Pull out the weaker looking seedlings until you have 3 or 4 in each pot. This will give the strong seedlings room to keep growing.

Gently pull out the smaller seedlings to make room for the hardier seedlings to grow.

Once the smaller seedlings are thinned, there should be about 4 seedlings in each container.

Place the thinned seedlings back under your grow light. After another week or two, they may need to be thinned once more. You can take the additional plants and re-plant them in another pot, or just get rid of them.

After about 6-8 weeks, your seedlings will be ready to transplant either outside or into a larger container.

Conclusion

It’s really easy to learn how to turn old tomatoes into new tomato plants. Growing new tomato seedlings from old tomatoes is A LOT of fun, and is a cool little science project if you’re interested in gardening or horticulture. The concept of growing new vegetables from your existing ones is exciting, and is a great first step toward sustainability. It’s also great practice to get good at starting seeds and caring for seedlings.

I’m excited to see how well these tomato plants turn out and I’ll definitely give you and update in another month or two to see how these little guys are growing!

If you enjoyed this article and want to see how these tomato plants turn out, make sure to subscribe to the blog below. Also, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic so drop a comment and I’ll make sure to get back to you!

Happy Gardening,

Cody

Thistle Downs Farm