Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Heirloom Vegetables
http://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheets/HGIC1255.htm

Heirloom vegetables are defined in several ways. Some consider heirlooms to
be any vegetable cultivars that have been grown for a certain length of
time. Other people consider vegetables to be truly heirlooms only if being
passed down by a family or group has preserved them. Heirlooms are always
open-pollinated, since hybrid seed can not be maintained by ordinary means.
However heirloom vegetables are defined, interest is increasing in our
edible heritage.

WHY GROW HEIRLOOMS

One reason to grow heirloom vegetables is simply that they are a taste of
the past. Many varieties, which had been prized and maintained for
generations, have been lost in recent decades as fewer people save seed
year to year. For many gardeners, saving an heirloom cultivar is a
connection to their heritage.

Many gardeners grow heirlooms that have superior flavor. Heirloom varieties
that have been selected for taste and tenderness through several
generations are often tastier than cultivars that have been selected for
ease of shipping, uniform appearance or ability to grow well throughout the
country.

When gardeners save the seed of the best-tasting, best-performing plants in
their gardens each year for a number of years, they gradually select their
own special cultivars. Those selections will be suited to their own growing
conditions and tastes. Open-pollinated seed that has been grown and
harvested for generations in a region or microclimate becomes adapted to
that area’s soil, climate and pests.

Many people grow and save old cultivars because they save a lot of money by
avoiding the purchase of new and expensive hybrid seed each year. Hybrid
seed will not produce similar plants when saved from year to year.

Another vital reason to maintain heirlooms is to keep their genetic traits
for future use. When old varieties of food crops are not maintained, the
gene pool grows smaller and smaller. This may lead to increased disease and
pest problems.

SAVING SEED

If you grow heirloom vegetables, you will almost certainly save seed. More
and more companies are beginning to carry old cultivars in their seed list,
but most heirloom gardeners want to ensure their seed supply against
changes in fashion. Many also feel that saving their own seed gives them
more connection to the entire process of growth and regeneration.

Do not try to save seed from hybrid vegetables. It will not produce plants
the same as those from which it is collected. Saving seed can duplicate
open-pollinated cultivars, if the crop is not allowed to cross with other
strains of related vegetables.

There are several ways that home gardeners can maintain their seed stock
without unwanted crossing.

Some vegetables are mainly self-pollinating; their seeds will produce
plants like the parent plant that produced the seeds. Beans, peas and
peanuts, lettuce, eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes are usually
self-pollinating. Insects occasionally cross them, so plant them with at
least 10 feet between varieties. Beans and tomatoes are very popular as
heirloom vegetables partly because they are easily maintained true to type.
Vegetables that are cross-pollinated by insects or by wind need to be
isolated or raised at a considerable distance from other varieties. This
distance may need to be several hundred yards or more, depending on the
crop. Onions, cucumbers, corn, pumpkins, squash, broccoli, beets, carrots,
cabbage, cauliflower, melons, radishes, spinach, Swiss chard and turnips
are all insect-or wind-pollinated. In a small garden, the easiest way to
ensure purity is to grow not more than one variety of a species at a time.
If your goal in raising an heirloom variety is to preserve it, you do not
want it to cross with something else.

One way to isolate cultivars is to grow them in separate screened cages, or
to cover individual flowers with bags and hand-pollinate them. Another
method is called time isolation. Time plantings so that different varieties
are not flowering at the same time and so cannot pollinate each other.

Choose plants to save seed from before you harvest the rest of the crop to
eat. You should choose the healthiest, most productive and most flavorful
plants to save for seed. Make sure that you label them clearly for seed to
avoid temptation.

Allow seeds to ripen fully before they are harvested. Mature seeds are more
likely to grow well than seeds harvested too soon. Strong, healthy plants
produce healthier seeds than seed from weak, stressed plants.

Warm, dry conditions while seed matures increases their storage life. It is
best to harvest your seeds and bring them inside for final drying as soon
as they are fully mature and dry, especially if rains threaten

Most vegetable seeds remain viable for three to five years when stored
properly. Place thoroughly dry seed in a tightly closed glass jar and keep
the jar in a cool dry location. Put silica gel packets in with the seed to
help keep it dry. You can add diatomaceous earth to seed to help prevent
insect damage. Store seed in the refrigerator to further increase its life
expectancy. To test for germination, sprout seeds between moist paper
towels; if germination is low, either discard the seeds or plant extra to
give the desirable number of plants.

Long-lived seeds include beets; all cabbage relatives such as broccoli,
cauliflower, collards, and kale; cucumber; lettuce; melons; peppers;
sunflower; tomato; and turnip. If you keep them cool and dry, these seeds
should maintain good viability for five years or more.

Medium-lived seeds include beans, carrot, chard, eggplant, parsley, peas,
pumpkin and squash. These, properly stored, should last at least three
years.

Short-lived seeds can only be depended on to last to the next growing
season. This list includes corn, leek, onion and spinach seed.