How to Get Free Tomato Plants

Every year down at the gardening center people are paying lots of money for tomato plant starts to put into their springtime gardens. At the end of gardening season, they rip their used plants out of the garden and throw them away. At the beginning of the next gardening season these same people are back giving more money to the gardening center for new tomato plant starts.

Is there a way around paying the gardening center for tomato plants every year? You bet!

Year One:

Method One: March into your grocery store and find the produce manager; ask when they might have a rotten tomato for you to have free for a project that you are working on. Or, if you want to spend a few pennies on this project, buy a very ripe pretty tomato and eat everything except the seeds.

To harvest free tomato seeds out of your tomato, stick the messy part holding the seeds onto a paper towel and let everything dry.

To plant your free tomato seeds, cut your paper towel edges back so that you just have seeds stuck to the towel, and place the paper towel holding the seeds into a shallow pot, box, or pan holding about one-inch of soil under the seeds, and about one-half inch of soil over the seeds. Water and always keep the dirt between damp and lightly moist.

When plants are an inch or two tall, transplant into pots with a few plants in each pot. As your plants grow, thin back the plants in the pot so that you have just the very best plant growing.

You are now at the stage where the nursery will sell you tomato plant starts. Enjoy!

Method Two: Look around that nursery for the person in charge and ask politely if you can have the broken branch of a tomato plant that is in their trash can. Tomato cuttings and branches will grow roots in water.

Method Three: Watch your friends to see who is throwing away their tomato plants at the end of the growing season and ask nicely if you can carry them to your car instead of the trash can.