Monday, February 7, 2011

Seeds

The last big seed order for the spring was just placed. Did I get everything I wanted? ... No. Am I growing only heirlooms? ... not by a long shot. All the same, it's what the budget will allow and what the market will desire. If it wasn't for CSA support there would be no seed order at all. The drought last year was horrible. I'm still trying to repair the damage it did to the farms' budget. That said, the standards you'll see at market are on their way, or already in the greenhouse.

I am often asked if everything I grow is heirloom. I wish it was. When I was a home gardener heirlooms were the only seeds I grew. I saved my seeds each year and watched the evolutionary process season after season as the strongest and the fittest survived and prospered. In some varieties I can still do that. I've been growing Purira chiles for years. The seeds from my original order from Seedsofchange.com grew the peppers that were the foundation of the seed stock I still grow. Seeds of Change no longer sells this variety, but I will be growing several hundred of them this year to border my tomato fields and to deter pests. If you are interested heirloom seeds, I highly recommend my Louisa neighbors http://www.southernexposure.com/.

Two seasons ago, I asked Charlie Collins victoryfarmsinc.com , probably the best market grower in our area, about the difference between heirloom and hybrid vegetables. In a real brass-tacks kind of way he explained that heirlooms and seed diversity is great, but if you want to make a living growing vegetables the majority of your crops have to be hybrids. This was reinforced by a field experiment the same year. In a field of 500 heirloom summer squash I planted 20 hybrid seeds another farmer had given me. Those 20 plants out-produced the other 480 heirlooms. Math like that is hard to argue with when the premium for heirlooms is minuscule at best.

If you are planning a home garden to supplement your household vegetables this year and are looking for a great source of seeds, I always recommend the following:




Look for varieties that say "vigorous." Try to keep in mind the space you have, and the labor you are willing to put forth.

The importance of growing heirloom varieties can not be overstated. The majority of hybrid seeds are produced by about a half dozen large companies. Monsanto by far is the largest. Years ago they stated that the biggest threat to their business was people who saved their own seeds. They also lobbied hard for the recent food health safety act that was passed by the US government. I have huge problems with this act.

In order to be certified organic, you have to be accountable for everything that goes into your field from its origin. You can ensure this by purchasing certified organic seeds. This makes it difficult to save seeds, due to cross pollination. As the varieties of vegetables grown are reduced, we increase our exposure to the chance of a vegetable disease that can wipe out a large crop, similar to the Irish potato famine. By saving seeds and growing heirloom varieties, we may be increasing the biodiversity in our area and thus prolonging such an epidemic. The new food and health safety act could very well institute similar regulations on non-certified organic growers. If my business was selling seeds, and I wanted to eliminate seed-savers, having laws passed to indicate that only my seeds were "safe" might be a smart move. That is not the current case, but I do have concerns that we are heading in that direction. How the new law will effect small farms remains to be seen.

The little heated greenhouse is filled with chilies and herbs. Soon they will be moved into cold frames on the farm where they will be waiting for warmer weather and planting. This will free up space for the first round of cherry tomatoes, 4500 is the goal this year. Two times the number of beefsteaks that are hoping to fill our market tables this year. Sweet peppers and eggplants will replace the tomatoes in late march and so forth, and so on.


Time to get back to planting,
Happy growing,
Farmer Russell

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