It may have shortened the storage life.

It may have shortened germination percentage too. Let the seeds dry and then sow ten of them, let them sprout and then you'll have an esitimate of their viability.

I got seeds that were dark in color from a dealer on Ebay and I'm having terrible germination rates. After 20 days 3 out of 30 have germinated. That's not good when I only got 5 seeds of one variety. The seeds were supposedly harvested in 09 and they said 90% germ rate.

Often, if they are a dark gray, by the time it takes to ferment to that color, chances are very good that the SEED ALREADY SPROUTED while fermenting.

Depending on varieties as well as how ripe they are when you squeeze them for fermenting, plus if indoors or outdoors and temp and if open or covered with lids with slits/holes, many can sprout in as little as 3-4 days. Some sprout even before a fungal mat forms on the surface of the juice.

taz, what was the vendor's ebay name? There have been some bad seed vendors there, some who change names to make it appear as an exclusive/new variety, some that claim organic and way overcharge (like 10 seeds for $3, plus S/H) and some who don't even ferment the seeds. Some just repack commercial seeds that they never grow out and may be stuck with large qty because of buying bulk and stock may be old.

This is much of my competition on ebay over the years.

windclimber,

If seeds you have fermented have turned dark from being left too long, dry them then do a germination test with 10 to 20 seeds by putting them on some damp paper towel and slip that in a plastic bag leaving a small opening. If you get a low germination rate, you can make note of it and plant heavy next spring so that you get as many plants as you want. (If trading be generous and please let the recipient know before the trade, i.e. "I can send you 25 seeds, but they gave me germination rate of 20%, so if you plant all of them, you might get 5 to sprout.")

Doing a germination test will give you an idea whether or not you want to save another batch of seeds if you still have fruit. Then set up some kind of reminder to check them more often. I've used the calendar in outlook or my cell phone to do that. (Writing it on a paper calendar is iffy in my house.)

Hope that helps.

Betsy

korney the price was very reasonable but if you don't get any germination then I guess it's still a ripoff. The vendor was nature_park.

I ferment my seeds, and when they are done, I dry them in a metal strainer. It seems to be the seeds that initially lay on the strainer to dry have a dark color, while the ones that do not have the regular color. I stir or crumble the seeds often, so there are not many dark seeds.

I'm not saying your seeds weren't overfermented, I'm just saying sometimes the dark color doesn't mean that they were.

Hope that helps

ekgrows I think you're missing the point. Not many of the seeds were viable. I've been growing plants from seeds for 30+ years and have no problem germinating good seeds and have never bought tomato seeds that were gray or had a black residue on them. I have never fermented my saved seeds. I just sqeeze them out of a paper towel or some TP and let them dry on top of the frige for a few days and then stick them in a ziplok bag for storage and just add water and blow a little air in the bag when I'm ready to germinate.