Saving Seeds - Winter Squash

I've been reading up on saving winter squash seeds for planting next year and the results are divided. One half says to scoop them out, wash them and let them dry in a single layer. The other half says to scoop them out, ferment them for a few days, rinse, then let them dry.

Do we have to ferment?

CC

CapeCoddess wrote:I've been reading up on saving winter squash seeds for planting next year and the results are divided. One half says to scoop them out, wash them and let them dry in a single layer.  The other half says to scoop them out, ferment them for a few days, rinse, then let them dry.

Do we have to ferment?

CC

My understanding is that fermenting helps separate out the good seeds. The good seeds float and the bad seeds and pulp sink.  Never done it myself either way.

Last year we had a massive  bitternut squash & only used half of it in one go ( Souped it )
As we had only used half of it the remaining cut end was covered in kitchen film , the seeds went very slightly  slimy after another four days in the fridge .
The slime allowed an easy way to clean the seeds , I don't think they had quite reached the fermenting stage but they were well on the way to getting there whilst still inside the squash at the cut end  deeper in they were not so slimy /easy to clean off ..
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     This year after the three day slime session still in the cut & food wrap wrapped squash I got Alison to scoop out three heaped teaspoons of seeds and put them to one side for me to play with .

I dried them off on some thick Kitchen paper towel to get rid of some crud , then popped them in a tall glass of water, stood it on the kitchen window cil in any sunlight that was unfortunate to enter through the dirty windows (  )
Three times a day ,I put my hand over the glass & shook the water & seeds like mad for five seconds . After that I rinsed off the seeds in the colander , dried them again and put them back in a clean glass of clean water & gave tehn a shake to get things going again.

This afternoon after giving them the third set of rinses of the thrird  day I dried them off and put them on a new dry folded sheet of kitchen towel and have left them to dry on the kitchen work top out the way of any hot sunlight in the kitchen .

Looking at them tonight ....  the seeds have come really clean and are drying nicely . Tomorrow they will be put in the airing cupboard on the same toweling to dry them for another two days , they I will vac pack & heat seal them in a small packet till I want to sow them next year .