If you are growing tomatoes this year they will have been loving this hot weather we've been having and you'll most likely be harvesting some ripe fruits now.

Have you thought about saving some of your own seed this year? Tomatoes are a really easy one to do and we highly recommend giving them a try. Read on to learn how to do this.

August is a great time to think about seed saving so we have decided to offer our online seed-saving course at half price for the month (from today) to help get people going.

It's packed full of useful info including loads of videos and downloadable resources. The cost of the course will be only £24 down from £48, a total bargain! Here is a nice message we received last week from a participant:

You can find out more about it by clicking the link below (there's a free sample module you can take to see if it's for you).

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How to save tomato seeds
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Tomato seeds are easy to save. However the gel coating around the seed contains a germination-inhibiting enzyme which we need to get rid of. This is done by fermenting the seeds, and then 'water-winnowing' them. The steps are as follows:

1. Harvest ripe tomatoes
2. Cut along the 'equator' and squeeze the seeds, juice and pulp into a jar (passata jars are perfect!)
3. Leave the mixture to ferment for 2-3 days in a warm place (22C is good) - stirring once per day. The good seeds will sink to the bottom after this time.
4. Top up the jar with fresh water and give it a good shake
5. Pour off the pulp making sure not to pour the seeds out too
6. Top up with fresh water again, and repeat this process until the water is really clean - this is called water-winnowing (click here to see a video of Ronja demonstrating this process)
7. Tip the seeds out into a sieve and then spread them out to dry in a single layer on a plate
8. Leave to dry for a couple of weeks in an airy place and then break up the disk that will have formed
9. Store in a paper bag in a cool dry place

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Seeds to sow in August

August is the perfect time to sow many autumn and winter crops.

• Winter lettuce sown in August will have a good amount on growth before the onset of winter (it can be sown in September for a Spring harvest)
• According to no-dig gardening expert Charles Dowding, 8 August is the ideal sowing time for winter spinach
• Spring onions sown in August should give you good growth for harvesting in the winter
• Asian greens sown in August will grow extremely fast and give you a bumper crop of autumn salad leaves

These crops and many more which are suitable for sowing now can be found in our Second Spring seed collection, click below to pick one up.

Happy harvesting :)

Fred, Ronja, and the rest of the team

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P.S. If you sowed your chicory and radicchio in modules at the beginning of July it will be ready for planting now, don't let the plants sit around in their trays as they really don't like it and might not grow properly once planted.

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