Vegetable garden Seeds 01/28/2010
by Farmer Dave
(Northern California)
Vegetable Garden Seeds
Greetings Gardeners
Its time for ordering your organic vegetable garden seeds and planning your garden. It has been raining and snowing a lot in Northern California this last week so I am doing some planning and ordering garden seeds.
I like to save my own seeds or to be honest my wife does a lot more of the seed saving than I do, but we still have to buy a few seeds that are hard to save or that we just missed for one reason or another. My favorite companies are "Seeds of Change" and when they don't have all of what we need we usually buy some seeds from "territorial seed company".
When you buys seeds you will have several choices. Try some open pollinated seeds especially if you want to save seeds and some hybrids for their improved flavor and higher production. Buy organic seeds whenever possible and avoid GMO seeds at all costs!
Open Pollinated or Heirloom, Hybrid and GMO Seeds.
This is a brief overview of seeds, old and new. There are basically three types of seeds. Open pollinated seeds, often called heirloom seeds, hybrids, and genetically modified seeds known as GMO?s. Open pollinated seeds are left just as Mother Nature intended, while the hybrids and GMO?s, involve some level of human intervention.
The type and variety of seeds you plant will make a big difference in the kind of food you produce. How sweet and productive it will be, when it will be ready to eat and whether you can save the seed and reproduce it.
Farmers saved their seeds and replanted them, slowly developing stronger more productive strains. At first all the seeds were gathered from their parent plants and would reproduce a plant that was the same as its ancestors. We call that kind of seed, open pollinated or heirloom, and you can save your own vegetable garden seeds from these open pollinated varieties.
About 150 years ago Gregor Mendel discovered a
method of mixing two varieties of plants to gain the best characteristics of each one; this process is called an F1 hybrid. These will go to seed but will not produce a plant that is the same as its parent plant.
Genetically modified seeds (GMO?s) were developed around 1983 and these seeds have their DNA altered in many ways and should be avoided at least until a lot more research has been done. Much of that research is being done unknowingly on you and all the other people who buy products with corn and soy beans in them as these are two of the main crops being grown commercially with GMO seeds.
Planting and saving organic vegetable garden seeds for a healthy future.
