People sometimes equate the technique of organic gardening with heirloom gardening, but they are not at all equal , even if they overlap to a great extent . “Heirloom” in essence refers to original types of plants , many no longer commercialy available on a large scale but yet still are grown by gardening fans who hand down the seeds, generation by generation. Many heirloom vegetables, fruits , and flowering plants are virtually just as they were long, long ago.
Most 21st century , commercially grown vegetqables and fruits are hybrids, which is to say , plants that have had their genetics adapted through cross-breeding or outright genetic engineering . They have been bred to for production in big volumes and changed to become disease- or drought-resistant, and so the produce and fruits can last as they are transferred over vast distances. As a result, the flavor has often been sacrificed for the sake of mass production, longevity, and profit . And oft these alterations mean there might only be a few different particular vegetables or fruits on the market , rather than the hundreds of varieties of the same plant that used to exist pmce exosted.
Most people don’t realize that this situation, this “monoculture” as it’s called, can put those few varieties in actual danger. One monolithic variety could be susceptible to a specific deadly virus, and that entire kind of food could actually become extinct if the disease strikes. On the other hand, having many different varieties increases the chance of the survival of the food, as one breed might fall to a virus while others are resistant.
For these reasons and many others, groups and individuals have arisen that seek to preserve and increase the food and other plant varieties that have fallen out of commercial favor. The seeds they save from the growing of these aged varieties start out as organic, by definition, because they have not been altered by non-natural means, nor have they been chemically treated. But their planting, fertilization, and harvesting could still end up not falling into the “organic” category if pesticides or herbicides are used, or if non-organic methods are used in the actual gardening.
So you can see that while heirloom gardening has many of the same goals as organic gardening, they aren’t always identical.
The true organic gardener who wishes to produce heirloom varieties will use these preserved seeds, and then will utilize the methods associated with organic gardening on top of that. He or she will avoid the synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, will use natural methods of dealing with insects and other pests, and will employ natural composts and fertilizing systems to keep the soil healthy and full of nutrients. Even the pollination of the flowers that produce the fruits or vegetables will be completed by “open pollination,” that is, via bees, insects, or the wind. This will result in vigorous seeds that breed true in the future(a) generation, unlike many of the hybrids that don’t always produce the same results in the second or third generation of the plant.
An organic gardener may plant hybrid varieties, yet use organic methods in the actual gardening. And conversely, an heirloom gardener could set out with organic heirloom seeds, but use non-organic methods. It’s only when the two are combined that
