I cut open the pods, remove the seeds and membrane, place on a paper towel in a casserole dish place on top of fridge and air dry for at least three weeks before bagging them. You can label the paper towel with the seed type, then add more layers of towels with various seeds. I've read if there is still moisture in the seeds they can be damaged when freezing, so I just place mine in a dark cupboard (I like my beer extra cold so sometimes stuff freezes in the fridge).

Yellow Doll is a hybrid watermelon so any plants you grow from the seeds will not be Yellow Doll. Some plants from those seeds may be similar to Yellow Doll, others may be very different. Many hybrid watermelons produce few if any viable seeds so it is a gamble at any rate. You can save the seeds if you like, just collect seeds from a very ripe specimen and use a strainer or piece of screen to wash them with a tiny bit of dish liquid and rinse under the tap to remove the soap and sugars. Dry them on a paper towel for a week or two before storing in a cool place out of sunlight. If you have plenty of room and like to experiment there is nothing wrong with trying it, but if you want to be sure you have Yellow Doll next year buy seeds. You can buy seeds of non-hybrids that you can save year to year without degradation if you grow only one variety. Decisions, decisions.

Posted by containerted 6a (My Page) on Sat, Aug 17, 13 at 17:24 seysonn, you seem to be in a hurry. You know, I've always felt that life on this planet really celebrates its wonderful diversity. Planting only one or two seeds each year may be okay for some. I personally prefer a few more than that. Most years I germinate about 750 to 1000 or so..... *********************************** @containerted: I was perhaps talking about an average backyard gardener, like myself, Not big farmers and commercial growers here. Def, if you germinate 1000 seed, the you need perhaps diversify more. About celebrating life, I do that everyday when I get up from my bed.That is why I don't like to do seeds bookkeeping and inventory management. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by digdirt 6b-7a North AR (My Page) on Sat, Aug 17, 13 at 17:50 If all I wanted was a couple of seeds for the following year I wouldn't bother with all the work of seed saving. I'd just buy a packet of seeds and be set for 10 years or so. The whole purpose of saving seeds is preservation of the variety itself. __________________________ @ Dave, I partially answered you in the above response. Yes, you are right "The whole purpose of saving seeds is preservation of the variety itself. .. ". Or for me, it is something that I like.The other day I saw an organic heirloom tomato in the supermarket. Bought one and saved seed from it. Even with a packet of seeds I can cover a whole standard city lot with tomato plants. It is not the couple of bucks. My time and efforts are much valuable than that. FINALLY

Carolyn ,does the fermentation method destroy all pathogens ? If so is this due to the long soaking ? You stated above "only hot water treatment can be used for the bacteria" which isn't used in the fermentation method .So please explain. Would the clorine method be more effect with a longer soak time ? What diseases can these pathogens cause ? ***** No, fermentation does not remove all pathogens as I think I said above when I said that it lessened the amount on the seed coat and since infection is a quantitative process it means a lesser chance of passing on certain seed borne pathogens. Above I said that all bacterial and viral pathogens, to date, have been found in the endosperm of the seed and that's the interior part of the seed so they are not removed by any method except the specialized hot water treatment. I can't answer the question about a longer soak time with chlorine being more effective since I don't know any data available to say which pathogens can be lessened and how effective, so there's no baseline to go from. Which diseases can these pathogens cause? I don't know how to answer your question b/c I don't know which pathogens you're referring to. ( smile) In WI where you live the most prevalent tomato diseases are the foliage diseases and the four major ones are Early Blight ( A. solani), Septoria Leaf Spot, Bacterial Speck and Bacterial Spot, but the first two are fungal and I do know that Dr. Dillard's results showed that those two fungal ones were lessened with Fermentation. You also can have occasional Verticillium, but rarely Fusarium, and I do know that Fusarium is lessened on the seed coat but can't remember if Verticillium is but would assume so. The long ago words about what fermentation could accomplish are as follows, but the data that came later proved some of them to not be true. Helps remove the gel on the seeds; very true, so you end up with fluffy seeds the same as you'd buy. Inactivates seed borne pathogens; later data has indicated which ones The acid conditions of the fermentation kill viruses; not true since those viruses tested to date are not on the seed coat. Commercial seed producers often TSP to treat their seeds b'c it's known that TSP can destroy TMV ( Tobacco Mosaic Virus), but don't ask me how b'c I don't know. LOL TSP treated seeds are pretty easy to ID b'c the seeds are smaller than normal, not fuzzy, and much darker in color. The mold that forms on atop the the fermentation has fungi that produce antibiotics that can kill or lessen any bacterial pathogens; not true b'c as said above, those bacterial pathogens tested to date, and that's not ALL of them, are in the endosperm of the seed. Hope that helps. Carolyn, who also thinks that many home growers as well as many of the smaller seed companies who sell tomato seed, and many of them produce their own seed although some subcontract out and some buy wholesale off the shelf ro a combo of those methods, use fermentation b'c they don't want to use anything other than the natural means that the tomatoes do themselves as to dropped fruits leading to more of the same kind, all a part of the natural life cycle of the tomato. And I forgot to mention that both TSP and actual acids are two other ways that commercial seed producers produce their seed. Lots of info on the net about that.