What Is An Heirloom Vegetable - & A Variety Of Heirloom Tomato Seeds

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URL: http://www.halcyon.com/tmend/define.htm

 

The Heirloom Vegetable Gardener's Assistant:

 

What is an Heirloom Vegetable?

 

While people have been talking about heirloom vegetables for more than a

decade, they have yet to reach an agreement on exactly what an heirloom

variety is. So far, experts in the field agree that heirloom vegetables

are old, open-pollinated cultivars. In addition, these varieties also

have a reputation for being high quality and easy to grow. Perhaps it is

best to discuss the details feature by feature.

 

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Old

 

Just how old a cultivar has to be to be an heirloom is open to

discussion. 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. A few, especially those re-creating World

War II Victory Gardens, add introductions from the 1920s, 1930s, and the

early 1940s. While some first-rate open pollinated cultivars were

introduced after 1951, few gardeners include them with the heirlooms.

While many of the varieties are 100 to 150 years old, there are some

heirlooms that are much older. For example, experts think certain

heirlooms are actually traditional Native American crops that are

pre-Columbian. Other heirlooms are old European crops, some of which

have been in cultivation for almost four hundred years. Still other

heirlooms trace their ancestries to Africa and Asia. They too may be

much older than records indicate, but distance and language make it

difficult to trace their histories.

Just as different gardeners have different ideas about how old heirlooms

are, they also have different ideas about which old varieties are

heirlooms. To some, nearly all the old-time varieties are heirlooms. To

others, varieties can be old without being heirlooms. They exclude, for

example, commercial varieties and those that appeared in the seed trade,

limiting heirlooms to those local or regional varieties that were passed

down from generation to generation of gardeners.

While I can appreciate the reasoning of those that view heirlooms as a

narrow subset of all old varieties, I side with those who include nearly

all the old-time varieties with the heirlooms for several reasons. For

starters, many of the old varieties that went on to fame and fortune as

commercial successes started small. Take the 'Hubbard' squash, for

example. There really was a Mrs. Hubbard who found this variety, which

was later popularized by seedsman James J. H. Gregory. Similarly, is the

'Brandywine' tomato, recently rediscovered by many growers, to be

excluded from the ranks of heirlooms because several prominent seed

companies promoted it in the 1880s?

I also consider old varieties to be heirlooms because so many of them

are threatened with extinction. Should we not save such varieties just

because, at one time or another, they were popular enough to be

commercial successes? I am even happy to lump the old, open-pollinated

varieties that still appear in seed catalogs today with the rare

heirlooms. While such plants may not need preservation today, they could

become orphans just as easily as their ancestors.

 

Open-Pollinated (OP)

 

When heirloom gardeners refer to open-pollination, they mean that a

particular cultivar can be grown from seed and will come back " true to

type. " In other words, the next generation will look just like its

parent. For example, plant a 'Brandywine' tomato, let some of the fruit

mature and collect the seed, process it properly, and store it well. The

next year, plant the seed and it will grow another 'Brandywine' tomato.

Seed saving is a simple enough process, and gardeners have been using it

for generations.

Now, however, there are more and more vegetables that will not come back

" true to type. " For example, plant nearly any F-1 hybrid tomato, and go

through the steps described above to save seed. The next spring, plant

it, and see what happens. The seed may not even germinate, since it may

be sterile. If it does sprout, the young plants will probably not have

many of the characteristics that made its parent noteworthy. While

hybrids have many outstanding qualities, the ability to reproduce

themselves is clearly not one of them.

Heirloom gardeners are, of course, aware that the term " open-

pollination " is a bit of a misnomer, because there is nothing at all

open about the pollination of many heirloom vegetables. Take squash and

pumpkins, for example. They cannot be left to pollinate each other

willy-nilly, or the resulting offspring will be mongrels. While some may

be interesting, the original type will be lost. Like the squash family,

the brassicas (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and their kin) also

cross-readily, as do several other vegetables. Gardeners who hope to

save seed of such vegetables have to isolate either the plants or their

flowers to prevent such unwanted crossings.

Another problem with the term " open-pollination " is that some of these

crops are not even grown from seed, and no pollination, open or

otherwise, is required to keep these varieties going. Potatoes, garlic,

Jerusalem artichokes, asparagus, and certain others are propagated

vegetatively. Calling such crops " open-pollinated " feels awkward, even

if such cultivars first grew from seed.

Finally, that open-pollinated varieties can come back true to type does

not guarantee that they always will. Gardeners in the past knew that

open-pollinated seed would occasionally produce an off-type seedling. To

maintain a seed line, they looked for and rogued out off-type seedlings.

Gardeners should do the same today.

 

Quality

 

What draws many gardeners to heirlooms is flavor. They want a tomato

that tastes like a real tomato, not a plastic one. They long for corn

that tastes like it did when they were a kid. They search for a sweet,

juicy muskmelon, and wonder why cantaloupes are crisp and dry. After

trying varieties that look good on the pages of seed catalogs but just

don't taste like much, they turn to heirlooms.

What they find may well be something of a mixed bag. The best of the

heirlooms really are wonderful. They have it all--they taste wonderful,

look beautiful, and are easy to grow. No doubt about it, these varieties

are terrific. There are, however, varieties that take a more experienced

hand to grow well. Some are local or regional varieties that may or may

not be suited to conditions in your back yard. Others are susceptible to

problems unknown to earlier gardeners. Today, certain plant problems are

much more common than ever before, and new, resistant cultivars may be

the only ones suited to areas where certain diseases and pests are

entrenched. Your local Master Gardeners or County Extension have

information on plant problems in your area, and can fill you in on

potential problems.

Finally, heirlooms can be quirky. Seeds may germinate slower than their

modern counterparts, or they may straggle in erratically. Some may pop

up after you've given up on them. As they grow, some heirlooms have

traits that are downright strange. For example, I once grew an heirloom

cabbage variety that seemed to tip its crown upside down until it had

six or so true leaves. Then it turned right-side up and grew just fine.

Other old plants will do similarly wacky things. Unfortunately,

information about such traits is hard to find. About all gardeners can

do is wait to see what happens, perhaps reflecting on all the things our

gardening forebears knew and the wonders of biodiversity.

 

Comments? Thoughts on growing heirlooms? Sources of your favorite

heirloom vegetables?

Send me an e-mail: tmend

 

1999 Kathy Mendelson,

 

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AND

 

Check out all the varieties of heirloom tomato seeds this guy has

available!

http://www.heirloomtomatoes.net/Varieties.htm

 

*Smile*

Chris (list mom) getting snowed in and thinking of the heirloom garden

 

http://www.alittleolfactory.com