Sourcing Open Pollinated Vs Heirloom Seeds

Wondering about the best place to buy vegetable seeds? Learn everything you need to know about sourcing open pollinated vs heirloom seeds here to grow yourself a successful, resilient garden.

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by Margaret Roach/AWayToGarden.com
The crops that will do best in your garden are those grown with high-quality seeds that have been carefully maintained and that match your growing conditions. Modern plant breeders developing organic, regionally adapted varieties may not be the norm, but they’re the ones creating the real gems of the seed world — treasures such as these ‘Sugar Magnolia’ snap peas, bred by Alan Kapuler.

Wondering about the best place to buy vegetable seeds? Learn everything you need to know about sourcing open pollinated vs heirloom seeds here to grow yourself a successful, resilient garden.

After growing my own vegetables organically for 25 years, I recently hit a run of more than my usual share of garden flops. Were the crop failures my fault, or could I blame the weather? Had I been choosing the wrong seeds? I decided to investigate by interviewing multiple seed experts for my website, A Way to Garden, which led me down a path full of surprising discoveries. I’ve come to see, in a new light, that every successful and resilient garden starts with high-quality seeds that are matched to the garden’s growing conditions.

Seeds Are Alive

Think about it: How many other consumer sectors deliver living embryos by mail, or set them out on an in-store rack? Seeds are alive and they adapt, meaning they’re greatly influenced by the environment in which they were originally bred and the way each generation of seeds was produced. They evolve in response to their surroundings more than we realize. These adaptations are based on obvious factors, such as climate, but also on cultural factors, such as whether the seeds were given a diet of chemical fertilizers. As a result, packets from 10 different seed companies may list the same variety name on their covers, but what’s inside wasn’t necessarily created equal. A ‘Brandywine’ tomato isn’t a ‘Brandywine’ isn’t a ‘Brandywine.’

When seed shopping, therefore, your most important question should be, “Will this living thing feel at home in my garden?” Meaning: “What’s this particular seed adapted to?” But you can’t know that unless you know the original source of the seed, which, surprisingly, is often not its seller. Many companies are actually re-sellers and not plant breeders or even seed farmers. You need to know who bred the seed, as well as where and how.

  • Updated on Dec 5, 2023
  • Originally Published on Nov 7, 2014
Tagged with: GMO, heirloom, hybrid, open-pollinated, seeds
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