I built a makeshift seed incubater/starter from a 7 gallon fishtank.

I want to do some "dry-runs" before I put some real heirloom seeds in early next spring.

my experiment is to get the system working and perfected with some expendable tomato seeds to see what works as far as temp, humidity, light ect

the wife bought some tomatos(an unknown heirloom) from a stand today and one is really soft. I want to use the seeds from it so I don't need to go thru the process of drying the seeds for storage, can I just plant the seeds or do they still need to ferment before planting?

any other advice? this will be my first time ever growing tomato from seeds.

It will be more real world starting with dry seeds,and I will do that also but I'm curious about whats necessary with going from tomato- to seed -to new seedling ,without the storage factor.

thanks in advance