tomatoes and peppers

I have to pull tomatoes a little early to save them from the birds. If I pull tomatoes and peppers before they are completely ripe and let them ripen inside, will this affect the seed viability later on?
Thanks.
Dk

DK
Have you tried one of those mesh nets to keep the birds off?

The mesh is a good idea..but if you pull the fruits,let the tomatoes ripen inside before you save the seed.Some viability will be lost and you need to make traders aware of this problem...also add more seed than usual to the packs.I wouldn't bother with the peppers if you can't let them ripen
on the plant.It wouldn't be worth the effort.
You might try offering an alternate source of water for the birds,as that is probably what they are after.

No on both. The netting only works a little since I have to drape it right over the plants, and just isn't worth the effort. I have two sources of water in the same back yard. (It is not a huge yard either.) I also have a compost pile they eat from, a bird seed feeder, and mammoth sunflowers. I finally decided they just like my strawberries and tomatoes and so I deal with it by pulling the fruits early. The fruits they get to I usually let ripen on the vine and then take the seed from those, but I wanted to know about the ripening inside and the viability from these.
Thanks for the info.

Okay, here's another pepper question. I just harvested several Tennessee Cheese peppers which were red and ready to be picked.

Some of the fruit had blemishes - I'd guess calcium deficiency, but my REAL question is - can I harvest the seeds from the blemished fruit, or should I stick with harvesting only seeds from the "perfect" fruit?

And do I need to ferment pepper seeds, and if so, how? (If there's another thread on this, somebody nudge me in that direction, and I'll happily go read.....)
Thanks!!!!