Fermenting pepper seeds makes very little sense. Dry...rinse with a 10% bleach/water solution if disease is in question. Fermentation is an extra unneeded (and somewhat unnatural) step for pepper seeds.

Although peppers and tomatoes are members of the nightshade family, fermentation is not necessary for pepper seeds.

Tomato seeds are enclosed in a gel like sack that contains growth inhibitors, preventing the seeds from sprouting inside the tomato. Fermentation strips away these inhibitors. The fermentation process helps increase germination rates.

Peppers have not evolved the same way. You can harvest seeds and a) germinate them fresh right away or b) thoroughly dry and store them for germination later.

Bill

Just for the record, fermentation is a pretty long and nasty way to prepare tomato seeds. Its much faster, much easier, and overall much more pleasant experience to simply use any counter cleaning powder like Comet.

Seed the tomato, put gel-covered seeds in bowl. Mix in cleaning powder until it looks milky. Let sit for 6-8 hours, strain out the seeds, do the float test, then dry and store.

No slimy fermented gunk, and the seeds get disinfected at the same time. I've done that for years with mine and I've had 100% germination rate so far from it (friends I've given seeds to even commented that they ended up with twice as many plants as they wanted because every single seed came up).

I never knew that about tomato seeds. Interesting. I would have probably just tried to dry them like I do with pepper seeds.
Bruce

I've read elsewhere that fermentation is not absolutely necessary for tomatoes either; the germination inhibitor is usually not intensely strong. But it does seem to help kill germs that cause foliar (but not systemic) diseases.

I always ferment me tomato seeds. I'd be concerned that dried goop left on the seeds would attract moisture too easily, increasing the risk of rotting. But the wild fermenting organisms in my house only smell faintly beery. In other places, they can produce a major stink. It's just the luck of the draw. The chemical route to clean tomato seed works also but you have to be careful to not make it too strong.

"Tomato seeds are enclosed in a gel like sack that contains growth inhibitors, preventing the seeds from sprouting inside the tomato."

I also thought this to be true, until a few years ago. Funny, there always seems to be an exception to every rule LOL!

Rick

P.S. This was a store-bought PoS

"store bought"

It could be six months old.

Whoa! That's crazy, Rick!!