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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Antique vs. Heirloom

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  • From: "road's end farm" <organic101@linkny.com>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Antique vs. Heirloom
  • Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2002 10:57:26 -0400

Heirloom in vegetable varieties I believe means that the variety was at some point not on the commercial market (that is, seed was not available for sale); the variety survives because it was passed down in a family or within a local community. Some of these varieties are now available again through ordinary seed catalogues. The term also implies an older variety, though I don't know if there is any consensus on the age: fifty years maybe? Often the age of heirloom varieties is unknown.

Due to the difficulties of keeping a hybrid strain as a hybrid in this fashion, vegetable heirloom varieties are to the best of my knowledge all open pollinated. Some open pollinated varietes are of recent commercial breeding and are not heirlooms.

I would think that a fruit variety, even if grafted/cloned, would qualify as an heirloom if it had been maintained in a similar manner within a family or community, while not being offered by any company for general sale. I don't know if there's any consensus on this, though.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>
To: "NAFEX" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 9:43 AM
Subject: [NAFEX] Antique vs. Heirloom

I see two terms used in NAFEX fairly often that I'd like to get
clarification, or at least some sort of consensus on, "antique" and
"heirloom" varieties. To me "antique" refers to a variety that is 100 or
more years old and is propagated by asexual means - grafting, budding,
taking cuttings, etc. so it is identical to the original variety.
However, with "heirloom" I have always thought of that as a variety
propagated from seed. It usually refers to vegetables, but can refer to
perennials where the seedlings have a very strong resemblance to the
parent,
such as the Door County apricot, which is commonly grown from seed. On
the
other hand, it would be unlikely to find an heirloom apple, since very few
come true from seed.
What do others say about this?
-Lon Rombough






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