Yes! The fermentation process removes the gel around the seed which is
a sprout inhibitor. The fermentation process also is supposed to kill
off disease spores or whatever is clinging to the seed. So it's put
it in the freezer container or what have you and let them sit around
until a bubbly mass of mold appears and then scrape that out of there
and dump them into a few layers of cheese cloth, rinse them off to
clean them off and then let them dry. Plant the resulting seed
however you plant others.

If the plants you planted, were hybrids, the resulting offspring from
you saved seed could be like one of the two parent plants on either
side, or their grandparents. or further back, or it could be like the
saved tomato, or one if it's relatives on either side. You may get a
good one like the one you saved, it's parents or grandparents...
you'll have to then save seed from those and cross back with the
parent.. and do that several generations in order to fix the traits
you like.

Good luck!

Janice

On Sat, 31 Jan 2004 07:05:59 -0500, Ann wrote:

"Cereus-validus" expounded:

You will need to cut open the fruit and carefully remove the seeds.

It will be a tricky matter removing the seeds from the pulp and drying them
but may be worth it if you can grow plants from them whith the traits you
suggest.

I watched a show recently about a woman in Maine who saves heirloom
tomato seeds. What she does is squeezes the seeds out into canning
jars, then fills the jars with water and covers them with cheesecloth.
She lets it sit for a week or so, there's a disgusting mold that grows
on top; the fermentation cleans the pulp off the seeds. The good
seeds drop down to the bottom. She spoons the yuck off the top and
pours the seeds out onto cheesecloth and then rinses them and lets
them dry. Never tried it myself. YMMV.