What is the difference between heirloom and hybrid varieties of plants

Would you be better off sticking to heirloom vegetables or could they be modified, too? Here's a breakdown of what you are getting from each type of seed. Heirloom vegetables are not a special species of plants. The term heirloom vegetable is used to describe any type of vegetable seed that has been saved and grown for a period of years and is passed down by the gardener that preserved it. It has a provenance, of sorts. To be capable of being saved, all heirloom seed must be open-pollinated , so that it will grow true to seed.

Open-pollinated—or OP—plants are simply varieties that are capable of producing seeds that will produce seedlings just like the parent plant. Hybrid plants do not do this. Plant breeders crossbreed compatible types of plants in an effort to create a plant with the best features of both parents. These are called hybrids and many of the modern plants are the results of these crosses.

While plants can cross-pollinate in nature and hybrids repeatedly selected and grown may eventually stabilize and become open-pollinated, most hybrid seeds are relatively new crosses and seed from these hybrids will not produce plants with identical qualities.

For example, each year new hybrid tomato varieties are offered. You may see them labeled as hybrids or F1 also known as the first filial generation first-generation hybrid or F2 also known as the second filial generation. These may eventually stabilize, but for the moment a tomato such as the popular 'Early Girl' does not produce seeds that reliably have the features you expect in an 'Early Girl' tomato.

Seed from hybridized plants tends to revert to the qualities of the parents, so tomatoes grown from seeds saved from your 'Early Girl' tomatoes might still be tasty, but not so early. Anyone can select and eventually stabilize their own seed or even hybridize new plants, but the plant and seed companies have recently begun patenting their crosses so that only have the right to reproduce the hybrids they've developed. When different genetics are brought together, the offspring often has better growth, energy and other characteristics than the parents.

I would argue this is because heirloom seeds usually have a bit more looseness in how strictly the gene line and in-breeding takes place, whereas hybrids are done under stricter isolation, and in lab settings. Hybrids are a carefully controlled breeding that is designed exactly to reduce genetic diversity. The whole point of a hybrid is to get more predictable traits, and to benefit from hybrid vigor heterosis. Hybridization relies on stabilizing two parent gene lines through generation after generation of in-breeding.

This process is likely carried out in a lab setting with strict isolation controls. The final crossbreeding only happens once. Heirloom seeds on the other hand are also carefully controlled to reduce genetic diversity, but often this happens under less controlled conditions, like in a garden or in a semi open-pollination situation. Actually, most hybrids can reproduce. Many hybrids are created from different varieties within the same species, in that case they can almost always, to the best of my knowledge, reproduce.

A lot of your favorite apples at the grocery store are hybrids. An example from the animal kingdom are mules. Strictly speaking, a GMO is an acronym for a genetically modified organism.

Every time a bee lands on a flower or an apple forms, the genetic combination is modified and the future of that species could be changed forever. So you could say that all plants and animals are genetically modified organisms, but that defeats the purpose of having specific language. So where do we draw the line when defining GMOs so we have useful language to debate and better understand the important issues?

The type of GMOs that people are usually concerned about are organisms where genetics from completely different species are introduced in a lab. If you want to find out more about how to get the most out of your seeds, and avoid some huge problems, check out:. What are Mucilaginous Microgreens? I learned a lot about plants when I built and operated a landscaping company. I learned even more when I started growing and selling Microgreens. But, learning is a journey, not a goal. This site is owned and operated by Plant Hardware, a sole proprietor headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

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Not only will the plants not be true-to-type, but they will be considerably less vigorous. Gardeners who use hybrid plant varieties must purchase new seed every year. Hybrid seeds can be stabilized, becoming open-pollinated varieties, by growing, selecting, and saving the seed over many years. So what's it going to be—hybrid, open-pollinated, or heirloom varieties? Please pass the peas All in a day's work at Heritage Farm.

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