3 PRACTICAL WAYS TO GET YOUR AMERICAN HEIRLOOM SEEDS

Get your heirloom seeds like this Mexican Dry bean (image from http://flickr.com/photos/)

  Although I got pretty interested about plants and seeds and house gardens, and I didn’t have green thumb at that, it was quite late that I learned about American heirloom seeds.

     Heirloom seeds and plants are those varieties of plants, like tomatoes squash and melon which originated and were grown to countries and places in the world other than the United States. They were brought and later adapted and grown here by the immigrants. Heirloom seeds are historical and full of stories. You may hear from stories about certain heirloom seeds which were saved by a tribe and were grown here as if it were a native plant.

     “Some authorities say heirloom vegetables are those introduced before 1951, when modern plant breeders introduced the first hybrids developed from inbred lines. While there are good reasons to use 1951 as a cut-off, many heirloom gardeners focus on varieties that date from the 1920s and earlier.”

     Heirloom seeds and plants are open pollinated (non-hybrid), untreated, not genetically engineered and usually grown organically. This means that no insecticide nor pesticide was used.

    

     According to growers and those who have tried it, heirloom plants are tastier than commercial plants and vegetables. One website say, "they have it all. They taste wonderful, look beautiful and are easy to grow. "That fact alone got me interested enough. “But where to find heirloom seeds?” you may ask. Seeds for heirloom vegetables were hard to find. Fortunately, that is changing. Several seed companies now specialize in heirloom vegetables

     One farmer says that finding for heirloom seeds is like love. When you find it, it’s everywhere. Here’s where to begin your search:

1. Ask your friends to get one for you. If you have friends from other nation, you may ask them to ship heirloom seeds for you. Or if you have Asian or Mexican friends, you may ask around and chance upon somebody who actually brought an heirloom seed with them like Mexican seeds or heirloom seeds from Cambodia or China.

 2. Seed Catalogues. The two most trusted Seed Catalogues are Fedco and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds which gets seeds from all over the world. Also many catalogues can double as reliable gardening books.

3. Seed Swap and the Internet. There are a lot of people who takes interest on heirloom seeds and even do seed exchange for another variant so that their collection may grow. Look for them on the social networking sites, videos and the comments left by well-meaning grower.

     One last tip, we heard that heirloom seeds in West Virginia are cheap. You may know somebody from there who’s willing to buy one for you.

You too can have your heirloom seeds. An example is this Pumpkin Australian Butter (image from http://flickr.com/photos/)

     With that, happy growing!