Heirloom/Heritage vs. GMO Seeds

To start off why I personally think you should choose heirloom fruits and vegetables, they are well known to have more nutritious value and way more flavor. I mean, who doesn't love a radish with a nice spice to it, or the sweetest strawberry. Good tasting food that is actually going to give you the nutrients and energy that is needed to go through the day like a champ.

They are less expensive to buy than hybrids for multiple reasons. First off, GMO seeds are usually produced in a lab and are trademarked, so you pay for the work that was done to produce that variety of seed. And secondly, adding on to the aspect of it being cheaper, you can save your seeds to replant year after year. You can not save the seeds from genetically modified plans. Hence it being cheaper to by Heirloom.

Also, a perk with saving seeds and buying locally harvested heirloom seeds, is that each year they will become more and more hardier to the natural climate. So, if you are like me and live in colder climates, they will be able to tolerate the fluctuation in temperature easier, or if there is that one unexpected last frost, they have a better chance at surviving. For the growers down south, they can become more tolerant to droughts and extreme heat. This also comes down to knowing where your seeds are produced, is it in a climate-controlled greenhouse? Or maybe its even in a completely different growing zone than where you will be planting your seeds.

In this picture you can see the seeds on the left are a lot smaller than the seeds on the right. Well the left ones are cucumber seeds I bought from a large seed company, and the ones on the right are the cucumber seeds I harvested from the plants I grew from the seeds on the left. Stronger, bigger and hardier.

Heirloom Seeds Can Be Organic whereas genetically modified organisms (GMO) seeds cannot. The use gmo seeds is prohibited to use on organic farms. Which means an organic farmers are not able to plant gmo seeds, even right down to feeding our organic meat/animals, cows etc. cannot eat gmo alfalfa or corn.

As we all know, nothing is perfect, so I have also included why someone might choose GMO and the cons of heirloom/Heritage and Open Pollinated Seeds.

Heritage/Heirloom seeds can have Moderate to low yields compared to hybrid varieties. Hybrids are produced for many reasons, one of those reasons is to get the most produce per plant. This is usually a very large attractant to Farmers who are wanting to make a higher profit off their crops. If we go back to my first pro in Heirloom, where you get more nutritious value, you need to eat less to get more out of it, just something to keep in mind. I am trying to write this and not be bias, although I am sure you know what types of seeds I would recommend.

Another reason hybrid varieties are produced is due to its pest and disease resistance. Pest and disease are probably farmers number one concern (of course a side from weather and climate issues). An outbreak of a pest can completely kill a farmer’s entire crop, resulting in losing their profit for the year. Of course, this really effects Monocultures (which I am strongly against, and you can read in my other posts to find out why) but when you only have one crop you are relying on and its taken over by a pest, you don’t have a backup in income. However, people have found ways to create hybrids that are better protected from which ever common pest or disease that variety usually is susceptible to. Making it easier for people to grow just one crop comfortably.

This is just some reason why to or not to buy Heirloom seeds. However even with the cons of buying them, there is usually a more natural way of protecting crops from said pest and diseases. To learn more about biological, mechanical, and other controls for pests and diseases, stay tuned for my next blog. Thanks for reading and as always, I appreciate any feedback.

Let's make this world a better place, one plant at a time.

This is my Rhubarb plant that the seeds from the first photo on this blog post came from. Check out my Facebook page @QueenBsSeeds if you would like to purchase some for your garden.