Fermenting tomato seeds

I am attempting to save tomato seeds by fermenting. One particular group of seeds came from a ripe Amish Paste tomato and after 3 days they were all floating. All of the gel sacks around the seeds were still in tact so I decided to wash them in a strainer by swirling them around a bit with my finger to break the gel sacks and then placed them back in water, Now they all sink to the bottom. Does this mean they are good to save or should I not have disturbed them?

Seeds that sink are viable the floaters are no good. Next time don't bother washing them let a thick scum form on the surface about 3 days and then give a brisk stir. Let mixture settle and the good seeds will automatically sink. Pour off the top half or more try not to lose seeds down the drain. Do this half a dozen times or till the water becomes clear. I use a quart jar. At the end pour into a tea strainer and then dump out on to a plate to dry,

This message was edited Aug 19, 2015 8:15 PM

eweed that is what I had done prior to washing them off. They were all floaters. None of them sank until I washed the gel sacks off. Now they all sink. Just wondering if they are good to keep as they do sink now. I have been doing this for years but never had a situation where every single seed in the group floated. As I said the tomato was fully mature and ripe.

Hey ncredbird,
I tried my hand at fermenting tomato seeds this year, for the first time. My subject was a yellow cherry tomato, the seeds were very small. After letting the seeds sit in a glass jar for 3 days, I put them in a strainer and washed them to remove any of the gel still attached. Almost all of the seeds then sank in water, so I dried them for a couple of weeks and then planted 3 of the seeds to see if my efforts were in vain. I had one very healthy tomato come back up, so at least some of my seeds were viable. I think your approach was very good, just plant a few of the seeds and see if anything comes up!