Fb BEST TO CHOOSE HEIRLOOM SEEDS FOR PLANTING

The Seed Guy

BEST TO CHOOSE HEIRLOOM SEEDS FOR PLANTING

When you shop for vegetable seeds for your Garden, there are two main types to choose from: modern hybrids or heirloom vegetable varieties. Hybrid seeds are created by crossing two selected varieties, sometimes resulting in vigorous plants that yield more than heirlooms. Heirloom vegetables are old-time varieties, open-pollinated instead of hybrid, and saved and handed down through multiple generations of families. Usually, they cost less than hybrid seeds. But there are more reasons than just seed prices to choose heirlooms.

1. EXCEPTIONAL TASTE is the No. 1 reason many gardeners cite for choosing heirloom varieties.

Crispy cabbages from Sicily, nutty Native American squash, your grandma’s voluptuous deep red canning tomatoes — they all immediately invoke flavorful images for those who knew them in childhood and others who have discovered them.

“A lot of the breeding programs for modern hybrids have sacrificed taste and nutrition.” “The standard Florida tomato is a good example. Instead of old-time juicy tangy tomatoes, it tastes like cardboard. It was bred to be picked green and gas-ripened because that’s what was needed for commercial growing and shipping.”

Many heirloom vegetables have been saved for decades and even centuries because they are the best performers in home and market gardens. Ship-ability wasn’t a concern so flavor could take a front seat, and it did. What direct-to-market farmer would survive if his cucumbers didn’t taste as good as his neighbor’s? Backyard gardeners rarely cart their produce cross-town much less cross-country.

Even today, small market farmers don’t usually transport their harvest in huge tractor trailers. There’s no need to plant veggies bred to be tough when you can plant heirloom vegetables that are tender, sweet, juicy and just plain delicious.

2. HEIRLOOM VEGETABLES ARE MORE NUTRITIOUS than newer varieties.

In addition to ship-ability, breeders and commercial growers have been steadily pushing for higher and higher yields. But for home gardeners, a little difference in yield isn’t a big deal. And even though hybrids may often out yield heirlooms, it turns out we’re now paying a hidden cost for this emphasis on higher yields. Recent research has revealed that in most cases, newer vegetables and grains are significantly less nutritious than heirlooms.

3. MANY GARDENERS PREFER HEIRLOOM VEGETABLES because they are open-pollinated, which means you can save your own seed to replant from year to year.

“Seeds saved from heirloom vegetables will produce plants that are true to type, unlike hybrid seeds. If you try to save seed from hybrids, you usually won’t get good results.”

Also, with heirloom vegetables you can choose what works best in your garden. If you save seeds from heirloom vegetables over several years, you can gradually select seeds from the plants that perform best in your local soil and climate. This will give you a seed strain that is more resistant to local pests and diseases. Plants are much more adaptable than most of us realize.

Take a nice, old variety that has a lot of redeeming qualities, and select what performs well in your garden; save those seeds, and you can create your own locally adapted variety.

4. THEY ARE “LESS UNIFORM” THAN HYBRIDS, which means they often don’t ripen all at once.

Commercial growers love the uniformity of hybrids because they can pick the crop in one fell swoop. But for home gardeners, a gradual supply of fresh produce is usually preferable to the glut of the all-at-once harvest that many hybrids provide.

5. In catalogs and on seed racks, heirloom open-pollinated vegetables are almost always less expensive than hybrids.

On top of that, if you save your own seeds, the price drops to zero for the heirlooms.

6. MANY HEIRLOOMS HAVE WONDERFUL STORIES of how they came to America.

In many cases, these heirloom vegetables have been grown for many centuries all around the world. What a great feeling — to be connected through tiny, magical seeds to so many other gardeners from so long ago! Some Heirloom Vegetable Seeds even came over on the Mayflower. A particular variety can stay in a family for many generations and have quite a history. “They can be passed down just like other heirlooms — like a Grandfather Clock.”

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