Just trying to make sure something hasn't gone horribly wrong.

I'm trying to save seeds for Yellow Croockneck summer squash. I let one squash from each of my 6 plants mature, though I wasn't sure how to tell when they were mature enough (since I haven't saved seed from summer squash before). I left them on until the plants were starting to die of SVB. That might have been too long since three of them were rotten when I cracked them open (YUCK!), but the other three looked fine.

I scooped out the guts, and then I thought maybe I should try fermenting it like tomato seeds (maybe this is where I went wrong). I knew it wasn't necessary, but I like how the nice clean tomato seeds sink to the bottom while the pulp and underdeveloped seeds float. I've also fermented cucumber seeds, and that also went well. So I put the squash innards and some water in a loosely covered Mason jar in the warm garage.

So after two or three days I checked it and it smelled like a sewer in there! Tomato fermentation doesn't smell good, but at first I thought one of my cats had had an "accident" in the garage before I figured out where the smell was coming from.

I poured off the scum on the top and rinsed the seeds through several changes of water just like I do with tomatoes. I even put a little dish soap in there to swirl them around in. But when I strained them out and spread them out to dry on a plate, they STILL smell like poo! I put them back in the garage to dry.

That was yesterday. They're not all the way dry yet, but... I know this sounds silly, but can I wash them somehow? (Without damaging the seed, of course?) I'm not usually a germophobe, but these seeds smell bad enough that I always feel I must wash my hands after handling them.

Is it normal for them to smell this bad? Maybe I shouldn't try the fermentation thing on squash anymore.