I bought a tomato at the store and squeezed the seeds onto a paper towel. After they dried, I cut the paper around the seed and planted them in good potting soil. Keep damp and you will have tomato plants in about a week. I tried planting seeds immediately after squeezing the tomato and they did not grow, so you must dry the seeds.
By Donna J. Cole from Independence, MO
This page contains the following solutions.
Always wipe up tomato seeds from your counter tops, after slicing a tomato, with a paper towel and throw the paper towel in your flower bed and the seeds will sprout on their own using the wet paper towel to hold in moisture. I've done this many times with huge success. It works for peppers also.
I had an older tomato and I wanted to get out the seeds. I filled a bowl of water and squished the tomato under the water. I threw the tomato part into the compost pile and the water and seeds into my indoor growing houseplant bowls, or out into my garden area where I try to grow seeds from scratch.
When saving tomato seed for growing your own plants, simply put the wet seed on a paper towel and let them dry. When you are ready to plant them. Cut the size you want to plant and cover with soil.
Try growing tomato plants from seed rather than buying plants at your local big box store or nursery. There are so many more varieties available as seeds than you can buy as plants.