I have asked this question on another forum but thought I might find the answer here also. What is the best way to prepare squash seeds for saving? Do they need to be fermented like tomatoes or just cleaned? What is the best way to clean them?
Seed saving question
No need to ferment squash. The squash needs to be very mature and gourd-like to produce the most viable seeds. I simply rinse them in a sieve and dry them on a plate for a couple of weeks.
Thanks. Getting to work on them today.
The seed co where I worked used to ferment them (and made the seed lab smell like a diaper pail), but they had better quality seeds when we cleaned and dried them. The fermentation was easier, but the squash seeds seemed to be more succeptible to damage from acids in the ferment than tomato seeds. It took a bit more work to clean them, but the quality was much better. Another thing that we found gave us better seeds was to let the squash cure for a month before extraction. The seeds continued to mature and improve after harvest.
I still have one squash that somehow got overlooked. I'll save the seeds from it. They should be great! LOL