permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@intrex.net>]

http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0901&L=sanet-mg&T=0&O=D&P=49088
SANET-MG Archives -- January 2009 (#69)
Subject: Saving Seeds: New Reports Out for Oklahoma Gardeners and Farmers
From: "trinity.red" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group <[log in to 
unmask]>, trinity.red
Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 07:52:22 -0600

Gardeners are eagerly eyeing their mailboxes for the winter's crop of
seed catalogs, but they'll find far fewer seeds to choose from now
than just 25 years ago.

By one estimate, the number of commercially available garden seed
varieties has fallen by 90% since 1981.

Older "heirloom" varieties, the ones grandpa used to grow, are
disappearing from the lists.

"Historical value and novelty are not the only reasons to take an
interest in heirloom varieties," says George Kuepper of the Kerr
Center, a nonprofit educational foundation in Poteau.

According to a new set of free publications from the center, heirlooms
offer much more than just antique accents for both home and commercial
gardens.

The rich genetic heritage of heirlooms preserves traits that let them
flourish in an age before widespread fertilizer, pesticides, and
irrigation.

Another plus: since they are neither hybridized nor genetically
engineered, anyone can save their seed to plant again in the next
season.

Two of the new reports detail the results from the Kerr Center's
heirloom variety trials.

Over the 2008 growing season, Kerr Center tested 30 heirloom varieties
of okra, and twenty (along with six newer varieties for comparison) of
sweet sorghum.

Growing Heirloom Okra at the Kerr Center: A Preliminary Study rates
okra varieties for yield, date of first harvest, plant height, ease of
harvest, fruit type and color, and attractiveness as landscape plants.

 "Okra is one of the most popular and intriguing vegetables in the
Mid-South United States," Kuepper writes.  "It not only adds variety,
taste and nutrition to Southern cuisine, it is one of the more
reliable crops that farmers and gardeners can grow in this climate."

Results reported in Growing Heirloom Sorghum at the Kerr Center: A
Preliminary Study include dates of seedling and head emergence, stalk
height, and tillering.

"Some heirloom sorghums were much earlier than improved varieties
we've customarily grown and processed at the Kerr Center," Kuepper
observed.

The Kerr Center has grown sorghum for more than twenty years. During
the annual Fall Farm Fest at the Overstreet-Kerr Historical Farm near
Sallisaw, visitors watch the sorghum being pressed and "cooked" the
old fashioned way.

The center plans more variety trials in 2009.

The third new publication, Heirloom Vegetables, Genetic Diversity, And
the Pursuit of Food Security, explains how the loss of heirloom
varieties sacrifices both genetic diversity and public control of the
food supply.

The report identifies opportunities that heirlooms offer both for
market gardening and home food production.

It also reviews scientific evidence suggesting that heirloom varieties
may be more nutritious than their more recent counterparts.

For more information call the Kerr Center at 918.647.9123 or visit
www.kerrcenter.com. The site offers free downloads of these and many
other publications on various topics in sustainable agriculture.