The cliff notes version for anyone who is on dial-up wanting to see the Bearded Gardener video:

1. Cut tomato and scoop out seeds with a spoon into blender (3 "Sam Marzanos").
2. More than half fill blender with tap water. (He uses "Magic Bullit")
3. Blend (relatively vigorously) for 10 seconds
4. Seeds settle and he adds water a few times and dumps it until it runs clear.
5. Dumps seeds into a non-porous "Chinese take out food" plastic tray. (Shows a polypropylene black tray) and slowly pours out the rest of the drops of water.
6.Sets tray aside to dry for up to 48 hours but says he packs them after 24 hours.

Note this is Part 1 video to watch tomatoes seeds in a blender 10 minutes. Stay tuned as we see them dry and bagged in Part 2 ;-) and you are invited to subscribe.

OP, Some people do use blenders. Usually it is done at a lower speed, and then seeds are sometimes fermented anyway. That's because their family put up with it more than yours.

It is considered poor form to exchange seeds prepared this way by some. The value of fermentation is more to produce natural antibiotics during the process which can prevent the transmission of some diseases such as bacterial spot, canker and speck. That is why we do fermentation. It is nature's method which provides some degree of protection, without resorting to chemical treatments to accomplish the same thing.

Many don't consider it a time saving process to dirty up a blender when they just drop the seed mass into a jar and forget about it, and then do the same thing without using electricity. The actual time spent is less for fermentation. Also your seeds are drying more slowly than the standard of using a porous medium such as a paper towel. This may decrease shelf life of the seeds and give disease further opportunity to multiply. Thanks for sharing your ideas ;-) & hope this helps. Nice video.

PC

This post was edited by PupillaCharites on Tue, Nov 18, 14 at 0:41

Use Blender !? worth trying.
I prefer fermenting, as it gets the gel coating off the seeds.
By blending you are separating the seeds OK but the coating might still stick on them (Just theorizing). If you blend long and harshly there would be a chance to damage the seeds (?!). You won't know this until try to test germinates some samples.

So I am skeptic but not saying that it is a wrong way. I like fermenting because it breaks down the gel coating on the seeds by the natural process.

Seysonn

Fermentation leads to the seeds becoming much cleaner and they won't stick together afterwards, when dry. This makes them easier to sow.

Thanks PC for the summary. Saves us having to go watch the video. Blender? Wonder how many seeds get damaged or destroyed in the process? No fermentation? No disinfection? No thanks.

Only 24-48 hours drying and on plastic coated surface is not nearly long enough to prevent molding during storage.

Dave