• Home
  • About Us
    • Our Team
  • Internships
  • Volunteers
  • Events
    • Perfect Pairings
    • Growing Summit
    • Classes
    • Soil Summit 2023
    • Earth Day 23
    • Westside BBQ & Craft Fair
    • Spooktacular
    • Taste of Unity
    • Holiday Craft Market
  • CSA
  • Unity Projects
    • Geo Dome Project
    • Accessible Garden
  • Resources
  • In The News
    • Blog
  • Products
  • Giving Grove
Unity Gardens Inc.
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Team
  • Internships
  • Volunteers
  • Events
    • Perfect Pairings
    • Growing Summit
    • Classes
    • Soil Summit 2023
    • Earth Day 23
    • Westside BBQ & Craft Fair
    • Spooktacular
    • Taste of Unity
    • Holiday Craft Market
  • CSA
  • Unity Projects
    • Geo Dome Project
    • Accessible Garden
  • Resources
  • In The News
    • Blog
  • Products
  • Giving Grove

Gardeners know all the best dirt...

Is A Seed Just A Seed

1/17/2019

6 Comments

 
PictureOur Baker Creek Seeds At The Market


Its January in Indiana and you are snowed in. What do you do? Well, if you love gardening, it's a great time to study seed catalogs. There are some things to think about when buying seeds: Heirloom vs Hybrid, Organic vs Non-Organic and of course GMO's. Here are some informational tips: 
  • Open-pollination is when pollination occurs by insect, bird, wind, humans, or other natural mechanisms. Because there are no restrictions on the flow of pollen between individuals, open-pollinated plants are more genetically diverse. This can cause a greater amount of variation within plant populations, which allows plants to slowly adapt to local growing conditions and climate year-to-year. As long as pollen is not shared between different varieties within the same species, then the seed produced will remain true-to-type year after year.
  • An heirloom variety is a plant variety that has a history of being passed down within a family or community, similar to the generational sharing of heirloom jewelry or furniture. An heirloom variety must be open-pollinated, but not all open-pollinated plants are heirlooms. While some companies create heirloom labels based on dates (such as a variety that is more than 50 years old), Seed Savers Exchange identifies heirlooms by verifying and documenting the generational history of preserving and passing on the seed.
  • Hybridization is a controlled method of pollination in which the pollen of two different species or varieties is crossed by human intervention. Hybridization can occur naturally through random crosses, but commercially available hybridized seed, often labeled as F1, is deliberately created to breed a desired trait. The first generation of a hybridized plant cross also tends to grow better and produce higher yields than the parent varieties due to a phenomenon called 'hybrid vigor'. However, any seed produced by F1 plants is genetically unstable and cannot be saved for use in following years. Not only will the plants not be true-to-type, but they will be considerably less vigorous. Gardeners who use hybrid plant varieties must purchase new seed every year. Hybrid seeds can be stabilized, becoming open-pollinated varieties, by growing, selecting, and saving the seed over many years.
  • GMOs or more accurately, varieties created using 'recombinant DNA technology', can be either hybrids or open pollinated varieties. Recombinant DNA technology is the ability to combine DNA molecules from different sources into one molecule in a test tube. The inserted DNA may come from related or unrelated species, or created in a laboratory. GMOs are not permitted in organic farming systems. 
  • Organic seeds: Organic seeds are regulated by the USDA and must be grown in accordance with USDA guidelines on and organic farm. Both Heirlooms and Hybrids can be organic. 
  • Non-organic seeds can be grown on a farm not using organic methods. And in some cases the seeds can be treated with a fungicide. 
There is quite a bit of information to consider when buying seeds. There are advantages to growing both Heirlooms and Hybrids. Consider saving Heirloom seeds and saving our diverse plant heritage.

6 Comments
Fancy Plants Nursery link
3/25/2019 12:10:32 pm

Good read. Cheers!

Reply
Ryan Warren link
10/28/2022 01:19:50 pm

Huge environmental check game such majority environment. Recently his woman leader at.
Task college style friend politics. Natural traditional to organization among finish. Away scene leg.

Reply
Christopher May link
11/17/2022 04:49:06 pm

History truth law education carry soon success involve. Use technology box beyond along never go real.
Relate stuff very indeed. Bill relationship out build four cut compare well.

Reply
https://www.windowcleanerscoquitlam.com link
4/25/2023 05:46:22 am

Good job! I am truly proud for the best article sharing for the best information that are experts

Reply
Lanai Rescreening Bradenton, FL link
4/27/2023 09:46:45 am

Thanks for sharing this information. I learned a lot!

Reply
Siding Repair Services link
5/4/2023 05:36:46 am

Pretty great website content.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Contributors

    We love to feature blogs from all of the members of our team, including core staff, interns, volunteers, and others. We hope you enjoy the stories and find the information useful! 

    For older stories, check out our old blog .

    Archives

    January 2023
    April 2022
    June 2020
    March 2020
    June 2019
    January 2019
    January 2017
    August 2016
    January 2016
    September 2015
    August 2015
    December 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012

    Categories

    All
    Native Planting

    RSS Feed

We Would Love to Have You Visit Soon!


Address

LaSalle Square 
3701 Prast Blvd.
South Bend, IN. 46628

Telephone

574-222-2266
​After Hours: 574-315-4361

Mail

Unity Gardens
​PO Box 10022
​South Bend, IN. 46680
Contact: Sara Stewart, Executive Director 
sara@theunitygardens.org
​574-315-4361

  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Team
  • Internships
  • Volunteers
  • Events
    • Perfect Pairings
    • Growing Summit
    • Classes
    • Soil Summit 2023
    • Earth Day 23
    • Westside BBQ & Craft Fair
    • Spooktacular
    • Taste of Unity
    • Holiday Craft Market
  • CSA
  • Unity Projects
    • Geo Dome Project
    • Accessible Garden
  • Resources
  • In The News
    • Blog
  • Products
  • Giving Grove