Germinated Seed?

[TX-TomatoBug]

@Seven Bends I was fermenting seeds for the first time this year, in my dining room, using those little plastic cups and something nasty got in there and ruined everything. Some green/black fuzzy slime stuff. I had to toss everything. I had over twenty different varieties fermenting. I was going to do as @MissS said and put them in the garage but I felt it was too hot in there. Mrs. Fat Bee was not too pleased with me with the stink and mess. I was way more upset with myself though for losing all those seeds. Maybe I'll try Oxiclean instead.

Major bummer about all your seeds.

Per @zeuspaul's comments, I experimented with the Oxiclean method also a few months back. Very easy, fast, no guesswork and resulted in clean seeds. And after your experience, I think that will definitely be the primary method for me. I can always "practice" fermenting with excess tomatoes.

[MissS]

@Seven Bends I was fermenting seeds for the first time this year, in my dining room, using those little plastic cups and something nasty got in there and ruined everything. Some green/black fuzzy slime stuff. I had to toss everything. I had over twenty different varieties fermenting. I was going to do as @MissS said and put them in the garage but I felt it was too hot in there. Mrs. Fat Bee was not too pleased with me with the stink and mess. I was way more upset with myself though for losing all those seeds. Maybe I'll try Oxiclean instead.

Oh dear. There was nothing wrong at all with those seeds. When we ferment them they do grow a layer of mold on top. It is those spores that you need to ferment your seeds. When it's time to clean them you dispose of the mold mat and rinse the seeds in a strainer. The reason that we don't stir the seeds is to allow the mold mat to form. The garage is best in order to preserve ones marriage.

[MissS]

@Seven Bends I was fermenting seeds for the first time this year, in my dining room, using those little plastic cups and something nasty got in there and ruined everything. Some green/black fuzzy slime stuff. I had to toss everything. I had over twenty different varieties fermenting. I was going to do as @MissS said and put them in the garage but I felt it was too hot in there. Mrs. Fat Bee was not too pleased with me with the stink and mess. I was way more upset with myself though for losing all those seeds. Maybe I'll try Oxiclean instead.

Major bummer about all your seeds.

Per @zeuspaul's comments, I experimented with the Oxiclean method also a few months back. Very easy, fast, no guesswork and resulted in clean seeds. And after your experience, I think that will definitely be the primary method for me. I can always "practice" fermenting with excess tomatoes.

This method is quick and easy for sure. The biggest problem with it is that it has not been proven to destroy the disease pathogens that can be passed on to the next grower. I choose to grow seeds that have been fermented.

[FatBeeFarm]

@MissS I thought it was supposed to be a white moldy mat for some reason; maybe from my happy experiences fermenting grapes, hot peppers, etc. My green black stuff looked like rot and positively toxic, and if I had seen it in my other ferments I would have tossed it ASAP as a ruined batch. I guess since I'm not eating the tomato seeds it's OK?

[MissS]

@MissS I thought it was supposed to be a white moldy mat for some reason; maybe from my happy experiences fermenting grapes, hot peppers, etc. My green black stuff looked like rot and positively toxic, and if I had seen it in my other ferments I would have tossed it ASAP as a ruined batch. I guess since I'm not eating the tomato seeds it's OK?

The mold will start out as a thin white layer and quickly change over to a dark blue/black mat. Let the mat sit on there for a day or two and your seeds should be ready to put in a strainer and rinse off the scum and mold.

[bower]

@FatBeeFarm MissS described it well. The thin white layer is actually driven by lactobacillus - harmless (or we could say beneficial!) anaerobic fermenters. They form a 'cap' on top of your seed ferment which keeps or turns the liquid environment anaerobic while they clean your seeds.
Blue, green, black, grey or other molds that form in the air layer, depending on spores in your environment, are not actually doing anything for your seeds, but they are generally considered harmless to the process since they are aerobes (requiring air) taking up residence on the other side of the lacto 'cap', and are not actually touching the seeds.
For some people the colonization by local molds in the air layer is the positive sign that you have a good solid cap and your seeds are fully cleaned.
Like you I am not especially thrilled with mold colonies, so I am happier if I can rinse off the seeds at the earlier stage, before they've formed. It's not difficult to remove the cap with a fork and dispose the mold colonies, but of course some spores are getting into the air when you do that and, fwiw, who needs it. Even the omnipresent pennicilium molds (the common blue and green) are happy to spoil your bread or citrus, so why put any extra spores into the air (if you have to do your ferments indoors as I do).
When your seed batch has started to turn milky and/or white cap starting to form or fully formed after about three days, give the jar a gentle swirl and look at the bottom of the jar. If seeds are sinking and gathering free at the bottom that is the sign that they're clean and can be decanted and rinsed and dried without a longer wait. If seeds are still mostly swirling in the middle of the jar, you may want to wait for another day or two. If I decant and find a few seeds still attached, I add water and use a fork to break it all up, keep rinsing and mashing with the fork a few times to release - which they will completely if you correctly judged the ferment was finished.
Experience helps... I've had a few plates of sticky bits, where I misjudged the readiness, but it gets easier to tell when those seeds in the bottom of the jar are really free and clear.
I still get the green blue or black mold on some caps, too.
It just isn't my favorite part of the chore.

[TX-TomatoBug]

@MissS and @bower, this is all great additional information. Thank you!

[bower]

@Ken4230 I used sugar-water to top up my last batch of ferments and they were clean and ready in 3-4 days. Wanted to thank you for the great idea, which is so helpful for those small batches I have to do, without enough actual tomato juice.
I just dissolved a scant teaspoon of sugar in a cup of water, and added some to each jar to give it enough depth for seeds to drop to the bottom away from the cap. This worked so nicely, I did the same with the second batch I put on yesterday.

I often worry about adding too much water and whether it might cause the seeds to soak it up. The problem with plain water is that it puts a different osmotic pressure on the seeds than tomato juice would do, because of all the dissolved substances in the juice. By adding sugar to the water, this gives it a higher level of dissolved and therefore should not put any undesirable osmotic pressure on the seeds. And since tomatoes are sweet anyway, sugar is the perfect stuff to make 'pretend juice'.