Which is best for seed saving?

[old fashioned]

I'm trying to save my own seeds to get away from purchased for many reasons including GM seeds. I do know open pollinated varieties are for saving.

1.Does the label organic and/or heirloom mean it's not been genetically modified?

2. I've seen OP type seeds, but without organic/heirloom on the label and have wondered if these could be GM?

Thanks for any info on this!

eta-oops, I just found this info on another post, soooooooo nevermind

 

[wifezilla]

Heirloom means it hasn't been genetically modified.

 

[patandchickens]

*Are* there even any GMO seeds available to the normal backyard gardener?? I did not think so. (If there are, they are a teensy minority, and please someone cite exact names with documentation).

"Hybrid" does not mean GMO, it just means it is the result of a proprietary cross and will not come true from seed. The sometimes somewhat extreme-type varieties you see in home garden seed catalogs are just the result of CONVENTIONAL plant breeding, not testtube genetic manipulation or gene transfer or suchlike.

These days practically all garden seed catalogs "proudly" advertise themselves as carrying only non-GMO seeds, which as per the first paragraph above I think is a bit of hooey on par with advertising bottled water as fat-free.

If what you are concerned about is seed-saving, any variety labelled 'heirloom' or OP will come reasonably true from seed - some more than others, but any of them more than a hybrid will.

Pat

 

[vfem]

Just because I went through this recently!

http://bakespace.com/news/2010/01/gardening-seed-101/

 

[digitS']

You shouldn't really be afraid to save seed from hybrids. I've had a few of these in my garden but haven't done the selection that would be necessary to move things in the desirable direction.

I mean, the genes are all "in there" and they haven't come from some strange, alien place. It might be that some of those genetic characteristics are not something that you want in a tomato, let's say. Maybe one of the parents is kind of a disreputable critter but it has some great disease resistance. I suspect that often, the parent plants are fairly ordinary things - it's just their offspring that are different in some desirable way.

A lot of us have had tomatoes self-sow and volunteer. That usually doesn't work so well here; a volunteer usually doesn't have time to ripen fruit. Besides, a fair number of my tomato varieties are hybrids.

I give plants to my father and a volunteer showed up a few years ago. He left it to grow. Dad took a real interest in this healthy little tomato plant. Just before frost, it managed to ripen a couple tomatoes.

They looked just like the Sweet Chelseas I like to grow. When I pointed that out to Dad, he was kind of disappointed. Dad always was looking for something really special to turn up - optimistic that way.

I was pleased and should have grabbed a tomato then and there to see if I could "de-hybridize" Sweet Chelsea. What I might have done is to try to retain all of the things I like about the hybrid, while not saving seed from any plant that didn't measure up.

I see tomato growers do this sort of thing on a regular basis. Some use "5" as a magic number - if the seed is from a plant that is 5 generations from the hybrid, they have a reasonable expectation that it will mostly grow true-to-type. Bingo! A non-hybrid Sweet Chelsea! Maybe I could call her a "Sweet Charlie" !!

Obviously, this wouldn't be an heirloom. It would be open-pollinated, of course. And, after some other "magic" number of generations - let's say 50 - somebody's grandkids could call it an heirloom .

Steve

De-hybridized Big Beef Tomato seed, you can buy . . .

 

[warmfuzzies]

Baker Creek Seeds is the only one I know of that test all of their seeds for GMO's. They don't have a huge variety of corn, but that is where you will find the biggest risk factor in the GMO's from neighboring (or far away) fields traveling to their seed crop and contaminating it.

They say they have a harder time each year finding non-GMO contaminated corn, because it is wind pollinated and can travel for miles. They have to be really carefull where they put their seed crops, so they are isolated.

The other crops are not as likely to be as much of a problem, because except for soybeans and the other grains, they are not as likely to be grown commercially near the seed plots. They are also not as commonly modified. Pretty much all commercially grown corn is GMO, so that is the biggest worry, if that is your worry.

Sandhill Farms does not test I don't think, (they can't afford to) but they do plant all of there crops 3 weeks after the commercial corn is in, or even later. That makes the pllination times different, which is also how they keep them from crossing.

Corn is a difficult crop to keep pure seed from, if you are trying to be really carefull, because it is such a commonly grown crop and the pollen travels so far in the wind.

If you are looking for the other veggies, I would personally trust Sandhill Preservation, the Seed Savers Exchange, Seeds of Change (though they do have some hybrids now, so that turned me off) and Baker Creek. (My favorite)