Heirloom or not?

[marlingardener]

Forgive me if this has been discussed before, but I'm a new member and couldn't find anything pertaining to the popularity of "heirloom" vegetables. I've tried heirloom tomatoes (fail), heirloom carrots, green beans, and squash (success), and heirloom peas (somewhat successful).
What experience do you have with heirloom vegetables, and your opinion of them?

 

[Chuck]

Forgive me if this has been discussed before, but I'm a new member and couldn't find anything pertaining to the popularity of "heirloom" vegetables. I've tried heirloom tomatoes (fail), heirloom carrots, green beans, and squash (success), and heirloom peas (somewhat successful).
What experience do you have with heirloom vegetables, and your opinion of them?

Heirlooms are just about all that I plant. I do plant a few hybrid tomatoes and peppers but mostly heirlooms. With heirlooms you can save some seed for next year off of your best plants and have them come true next season. The secret to heirlooms, or just about any plant for that matter, is it a variety for your climate. Tomatoes for instance. There are varieties of heirloom tomatoes that grow great in cooler northern climates but in hot climates do terrible. You just have to know what variety of heirloom will work in your particular environment and many times it is trial and error, at least in my case it is. I have been experimenting with different heirlooms for many decades trying to find the Holy Grail and I have far more failures than I do successes

 

[Carolyn]

I plant mostly heirloom varieties. They are more prone to disease than hybrids therefore your crop might not be as large or as beautiful as hybrid. I plant two types of heirloom tomatoes one is Cherokee Purple. These are extremely sweet but the fruit is softer and juicy and not great for sandwiches. They are good in salads and as a side dish. I also plant Brandywine. These are firmer and less juicy and better for sandwiches or pizza topping. You will notice more problems with bugs and blight as these plants have little resistance but I think the flavor is worth it. I have more waste with heirloom but my plants never fail.

 

[headfullofbees]

For me, it's dependant upon how easy it is to save seed.
If it's a pain, I use F1, if it's easy, I use heirloom.
That, of course, is with the exception of plants which need a longer growing season than here in UK, then I have no choice.

 

[fruitloops]

It seems like most of the heirlooms you are trying (except maybe the tomato?) you may be starting from seed. You could try buying some live heirlooms from a farmer's market if there's one nearby ya. That's interesting @Carolyn I didn't think about the heirloom tomatoes having less resistance, I'm also fairly new to vegetable gardening.

 

[Chuck]

It seems like most of the heirlooms you are trying (except maybe the tomato?) you may be starting from seed. You could try buying some live heirlooms from a farmer's market if there's one nearby ya. That's interesting @Carolyn I didn't think about the heirloom tomatoes having less resistance, I'm also fairly new to vegetable gardening.

Actually, starting your own seeds will give you a jump because you can start your seeds before the commercial growers do. They are on a timeline. They want their planted seeds to become a marketable plant at a certain time in the future and planting them any earlier only costs them more money. Whereas you, the home gardener, will want larger more mature plants to give you an earlier and more productive crop. As for disease resistance some heirlooms are resistant to some diseases and some heirlooms resistant to other diseases thus hybrids are created with the disease resistance or traits of both. But with hybrids you will have a very limited chance of your saved hybrid seeds coming true, the opposite of heirlooms. You can buy hybrid seeds but sometimes they are quite expensive and heirloom seeds are usually inexpensive

 

[headfullofbees]

There is also the fact that, if I grow from seed, as I do with everything, I can inoculate with mycorrhizal fungi, and I also know exactly how, and in what, my plants have been grown.
They are my food, and a disinterested employee on minimum wage isn't going to nurture them as I do.

 

[Meowmie]

Heirloom seeds do tend to fall prey to various diseases that hybrids have been created to be resistant to, but for me, I stick with heirloom seeds. I like knowing I can harvest the seeds, and some of the heirloom crops are so interesting.

I can get bigger, firmer tomatoes that all ripen at the same time, making them better for canning, but oh, I love the taste of some of the heirloom tomatoes and other vegetables.

 

[Trellum]

I love them, I don't have a lot experience with them tho, but my dad does and so far he has gotten great results! I'll surely give grow edibles in the future and there is no doubt in my mind I'll use heriloom seeds.

 

[Chuck]

Heirloom seeds do tend to fall prey to various diseases that hybrids have been created to be resistant to, but for me, I stick with heirloom seeds. I like knowing I can harvest the seeds, and some of the heirloom crops are so interesting.

I can get bigger, firmer tomatoes that all ripen at the same time, making them better for canning, but oh, I love the taste of some of the heirloom tomatoes and other vegetables.

Even though heirloom seeds are not bred for disease resistance, if one uses tested and proven organic growing principles you will have very few if any of the diseases that have been bred out of hybrids. A strong health plant fed by your soil instead of being fed by chemicals will be far less susceptible to soil pathogens and fungical diseases so prevalent as when using unnatural chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Hybrids have their place in the now, but heirlooms will last forever if continued into the future which hybrids are incapable of doing unless you place all of you faith and belief in chemical companies such as Monsanto

 

[Meowmie]

Interesting you mention having faith a belief in companies like Monsanto. Monsanto is WHY I will use only heirloom seeds. The only faith and belief I have in them is that they could well be the end of the human race. They are poisoning everyone.

 

[Chuck]

Interesting you mention having faith a belief in companies like Monsanto. Monsanto is WHY I will use only heirloom seeds. The only faith and belief I have in them is that they could well be the end of the human race. They are poisoning everyone.

My point exactly. You should google seed companies owned by Monsanto. It is disgusting

 

[Meowmie]

Yes, they have bought almost all the seed companies. They want a monopoly, they want full control over food worldwide. Which is another reason to grow heirloom. If you buy non gmo seeds, not only do you need to buy a lot of round up with them, you have to purchase seeds each year as seeds from GMO crops will not produce food.