Here's What to do With Your Overripe Tomatoes
Andrew Walker
Updated on March 28, 2026
Instead of throwing away your tomatoes when they get too ripe, turn them into dozens and dozens of tomato plants instead. YouTuber The Wannabe Homesteader showed us how to turn one old tomato into 60 or so plants—just add pot, dirt, sunshine, and water.
Here's the step-by-step.
1. Cut a tomato four quarter-inch-thick slices.
2. Place the slices in a pot filled with compost.
3. Add more soil and/or compost on top of the tomatoes until they're barely covered.
4. Water sporadically.
In one to two weeks, you'll have 50 to 60 tomato seedlings that you can then plant in other pots in pairs. Easy enough! Just make sure you share the wealth—otherwise you'll have a lot more overripe tomatoes to contend with. Take a look at the video here:
