Heirloom garden vegetables are those that have not been genetically modified and thus made into “hybrid” plants. Storebought garden seeds are almost all “hybrid” types that have been cross bred to produce larger, sweeter, or “better” fruit from the plant, which they do. The only problem, for long term survival purposes, is that these storebought hybrids won’t produce their fruit in following years from the saved seeds. Heirloom plants, however usually produce a somewhat smaller crop, but will produce their fruit year after year indefinitely, thus you will have garden food on a yearly reoccuring basis with heirlooms. I have found out one thing about heirloom seedlings when transplanting them from pots to soil in the spring. The heirlooms are much more “touchy” and have weaker beginning stems than do the hybrid plants, so be extra careful when removing them from your seedling pots so as not to damage the roots. Also take a bit more care in packing them into the soil so that you don’t break the stems. After they “take off” in about a month they seem to do just fine, but a little “TLC” in transplanting them is in order.
September 29th, 2009 at 3:35 pm Good website: http://www.ofthefield.com/
March 12th, 2010 at 6:44 pm thanks for the tip Ken will keep this in mind as I am going to start my seeds this week and this is going to be my first garden in a long time and I am sure the one years ago was with hybrid seeds. I am looking forward to seeing how successful my container garden will do. so any tips are welcome I will post which does good in containers and what my results are. this is a learning process for me so I will need prayer for my gardening skills and probably my garden not using anything fancy just some old storage bins and potting soil organic and some organic all purpose vegetable and plant food trying to keep it simple so I can learn also I hear slugs are a problem so will maybe pour salt around the containers get some organic pest control or find a recipe to keep on hand for any pests that want to try and eat my garden. I hear pepper spray works well for most variety of garden pests.
April 18th, 2010 at 9:08 pm Anybody want a couple of heirloom winter squash seeds for this summer’s garden? These things store a LONG time on the shelf over winter with no refrigeration needed. First come first serve for about 6 seeds sent by mail. Better get ‘em before the end of April so you can plant them soon. I only have about 60 extra seeds so the first 10 people get them. Don’t post your mailing address here. E-mail me at 888@solarsabbath.org
July 14th, 2010 at 10:38 pm what to do with the garden vegies, fruits for storage!! here is a site showing you how to dehydrate your food!! http://www.dehydrate2store.com/