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 Despite all the advancements in agricultural technolgy, there has been a movement toward the traditional practice of gardening with heirloom seeds. An heirloom garden eschews modern technology in hybrid plant varieties and genetic engineering for the simple practice of saving seeds from desirable plants for use the next year. It tries to reclaim some of what has been lost in man’s attempts to optimize crops for large-scale agriculture, and provides an opportunity to preserve the genetic diversity of plants from the threat of monoculture.
What Makes a Seed an Heirloom
There is no standard definition of an heirloom seed, but most descriptions have several characteristics in common. First, heirloom seeds must be old. Age requirements vary from predating 1951 (when commericial hybrid seeds began to be widely developed) to being from the 1920s or earlier. Despite their exact age, they all have been passed down from generation to generation, including many varieties over 100 years old, Native American plants that predate Columbus, and 400-year-old European varieties.
Heirloom plants must also be open-pollinated, meaning that they reproduce through natural pollination via wind, insects and other animals. In addition, heirloom seeds when planted will grow “true-to-type” by producing a new plant similar to the previous generation. Many non-heirloom commercial seeds are for hybrids and when grown, their seeds are either not viable or will produce plants not true-to-type. The advantage of heirloom plants is that their seeds can be saved and replanted the next year, ensuring that a favorite plant will return.
Heirlooms’ Many Advantages
Growers of heirloom plants do so for a variety of reasons. They may attest that the plants are superior to commercial hybrids, enjoy growing uncommon varieties or feel a connection to plants that have been passed down through many generations. Heirloom vegetables are touted as having better flavor than commercial hybrids, many of which were selected for compatibility with mechanical harvesting, longer shelf life and uniform appearance—not always flavor. Local heirloom plants may outperform commercial hybrids due to their origins with farmers carefully choosing plants with desirable characteristics and saving their seeds for the next planting. Slowly, they ended up selecting for plants that were best able to grow in their areas and had naturally developed resistance to local insects, pathogens and severe weather conditions.
Heirloom gardens also provide cost savings, since—when properly managed—they can be self sufficient with regard to seeds.
The Environmental Benefits
Local heirloom varieties may require less fertilizers and insecticides than commercial plants, since they are well adapted to that area. However, outside this location of origin, heirloom plants may actually be more susceptible to disease and pests. Thus, the main environmental benefit of heirlooms is preserving genetic diversity that is threatened due to the advent of large commercial farms worldwide adapting the same crop varieties. This monoculture is a dangerous situation, since a single pest or environmental event capable of killing one plant can lead to global crop loss and famine. Heirloom gardens preserve these older versions, which may become useful in developing new varieties in response to such disasters.
Buying Heirloom Seeds
Heirloom seeds can be purchased from many seed companies and over the Internet at places like Amazon.com[http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=heirloom+seeds&x=14&y=24]. Local and national seed-exchange groups and farmers markets are additional sources. A visit to your local Cooperative Extension Office is a good starting point for information on the heirloom plants successfully grown in your region.
Special Planting Instructions
Care must be taken with heirloom plants. Just because they are heirloom does not guarantee that harvesting their seeds will produce a true-to-type plant. It is important to prevent the plant from cross-pollinating with similar species. For example, cucumbers, squash and pumpkins can pollinate each other to produce a hybrid fruit, and heirloom tomatoes can cross-pollinate with a neighbor’s hybrid varieties. If seeds are going to be harvested, the plant will have to be isolated from similar species by just a few feet for some, or up to a half mile for others. If isolation from close neighbors is not possible, the flowers can be covered and artificial pollination techniques used to produce the fruit. Individual plants and fruits that appear to be the best examples of a particular variety should be selected for harvesting seeds.
Collecting Seeds at Harvest
Collection of seeds for vegetables is fairly easy. It is also possible to harvest seeds from flowers, although it’s a little more difficult due to their small size. If collected and stored properly, the seeds can last at least several years.
Just as many prefer antique furniture to modern, heirloom gardeners cherish their time-tested varieties. While modern hybrid seeds offer many advantages, it is difficult to improve on the satisfaction of using those carefully passed down generation after generation, each with its own history. With a little extra care, an heirloom garden can be your connection to this past, while helping to preserve the genetic diversity of food crops for the future.
Additional resources:
Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service
Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station (PDF)
Seed Savers Exchange
Plant Genebanks: An Ancient Solution for Modern Problems
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