Part of the fermentation process is to decant off the last remaining wash and most of the immature seeds should float off in the water.

The degree to which that's succesful is not perfect and with my own saved seeds when I go to pack them for my free seed offers or for friends or to send for trial and certain seed companies I trust, ot to fulfil SSE requests,I discard the remaining immature ones as they are on the table in front of me.

As to purchased or traded seeds, I still would just sort out any remaining immature seeds. Fermentation is not the only way that some seed companies process seed and again, no method is perfect in terms of ensuring that ALL immature seeds are eliminated.

I never soak tomato seeds that are fresh and fresh to me means less than about 5 yo. If I'm working with seeds older than maybe 12-15 + yo then I will presoak for about 18 hours, poking the seeds down b'c old seeds are very dehydrated and I also add a pinch or so of blue stuff, meaning Miracle Grow or Peters, etc, b'c they have high concentrations of nitrate ion and that ion is known to be important in seed germination. One can also add a few drops of liquid fish or seaweed concentrate as well instead of blue stuff.

Carolyn

Agree - sink or float works fairly well when fermenting and decanting because of the long time soaking. Otherwise it's a 50/50 test at best and a waste of valuable time IMO.

If meticulous seed counting and germination of exact numbers is important to you then the wet paper towel in the baggie bit is more effective. Once they germinate you just plant the ones that did and pitch the rest. That way you'd know exactly how many plants you'll have of each to work with.

Dave