North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Thomas Olenio <tolenio@sentex.net>]

Hi Lon,

You are looking for an authoritive answer on this question aren't you?

It would be nice to pinpoint an apple expert with an authoritive answer to
your question, as a poll does not seem help much.

Where is the university library curator, she will have an answer...

Are you out there?

Later,
Tom

--
Southwest Ontario
Canada Hardiness Zone 6a
(similar to US zone 5)

On Wed, 11 Sep 2002, hector black wrote:

>
>
> I like Lon's definition of antique as being over 100 yrs. old, referring
> largely to fruit or nut varieties, and Heirloom as being a race of seeds
> passed on for some years.  How many years on the latter would be open to
> discussion.  It would clarify variety descriptions to have these terms
> agreed to.
>
> I seem to recall that a "land race" (I've crushed my temptation to make a
> funny) refers to fruit or nut trees of a local area where the seeds have
> been planted and trees inbred for so many years that they mostly come true
> to seed. Would these be a third category?
>     Hector Black, zone 6 middle TN
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: road's end farm <organic101@linkny.com>
> To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2002 7:57 AM
> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Antique vs. Heirloom
>
>
> > 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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