I am looking to grow my own herbs. What is the difference between Organic, Heritage and Heirloom Seeds?
Novice Herb Grower asked:
To my understanding Organic is “healthier” which is what I am leaning towards, but then when I look at the Heritage and Heirloom descriptions on google, they throw in the word organic here and there. It is confusing.
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To my understanding Organic is “healthier” which is what I am leaning towards, but then when I look at the Heritage and Heirloom descriptions on google, they throw in the word organic here and there. It is confusing.
Your clarification is appreciated, thank you!
February 28th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
Heirloom seeds are also typically (but not always) organic. Organic simply means that they were grown in a enviromnent free of non organic fertilizer, chemicals, etc. Both “organic” and heirloom seeds are open pollinated as opposed to hybrid plants which are not open pollinated. Open pollination means that the plants were pollinated naturally instead of by design of the gardener. I wrote an articel on the different types of seeds and which ones might be right for you if you care to check it out. Good luck on your garden! Steve
March 2nd, 2010 at 3:55 pm
An heirloom plant is an open-pollinated cultivar that was commonly grown during earlier periods in human history, but which is not used in modern large-scale agriculture. Since most popular heirloom plants are vegetables, the term heirloom vegetable is often used instead. The terms “heritage” and “heirloom” are used interchangeably.
Organic refers to how the plant is grown. Growing organically means that no synthetic pesticides, fungicides, or herbicides were used on the plant.
There is much debate on organic food, but I personally grow my own veggies as organically as possible. I sometimes can’t find certain seeds that are organic, so I just buy regular ones and then don’t use anything synthetic on them as they grow.
My favorite place to buy seeds is Baker Creek. I get their catalog every winter and start planning my garden. Jeanne
March 2nd, 2010 at 5:12 pm
Organic is grown without chemicals, Heritage and Heirloom are traditional items preserved and passed on through generations. Just guessing
March 4th, 2010 at 9:23 am
Heritage and Heirloom are similar to pure-bred dogs. It just says that this plant is pure-bred, it hasn’t been bred with anything besides organic plants of the same species. I’m not sure how heritage and heirloom differ, but I know that they are both organic. Hope this helps you in your quest. Happy gardening! Duct Tape Fixes All
March 5th, 2010 at 4:54 am
Too many people are using the term Organic to describe their products! It sounds nice and most people are willing to pay more for something termed Organic. I have been an organic gardener for many years: it is comforting to know that the food you eat has no harmful coatings of pesticides, has not been raised with commercial fertilizers, which wash into the ground water and pollute your drinking supply. And has been treated with care during it’s growing cycle. This pretty much describes Organic. Heritage and Heirloom means very similar things to most folks. Both the terms refer to something grown many years ago, the seed saved and used year after year giving the fruits or veggies the same old-fashioned qualities today that it had long ago. In other words, it hasn’t been hybridized ,to change any of qualities that it has kept for many years. It is difficult to find garden seeds today that haven’t been hybridized at some point to draw out good qualities and get rid of bad qualities that used to plague original plants and fruit. If you desire to use Heirloom seeds, there are websites that carry thousands of old-fashioned seeds that you can order. Simply ask for Heritage garden seeds. MasterGardner
March 6th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
I would not worry at all about the difference of a seed that was produced organically or not.
If you grow your plant organically the origin of the seed will be diluted billions of times in the process. albert c
March 8th, 2010 at 5:09 am
Heirloom and heritage mean exactly the same thing as far as seeds are concerned. It would be nice if all the seed companies that offer OP (open pollinated) seed would get on the same page and use the same terminology in all the catalogues
This is Carolyn Male’s Definition (Ms Male is one of the top experts on heirloom tomatoes and has written several books on the topic)
1. Commercial Heirlooms: Open-pollinated varieties introduced before 1940, or tomato varieties more than 50 years in circulation.
2. Family Heirlooms: Seeds that have been passed down for several generations through a family.
3. Created Heirlooms: Crossing two known parents (either two heirlooms or an heirloom and a hybrid) and dehybridizing the resulting seeds for how ever many years/generations it takes to eliminate the undesirable characteristics and stabilize the desired characteristics, perhaps as many as 8 years or more.
4. Mystery Heirlooms: Varieties that are a product of natural cross-pollination of other heirloom varieties.
I have checked personally with Ms male about this as we have known each for many years other through some gardening forums and this question comes up perennially and she also says heritage and heirloom mean the same thing. Seeing as how all the seed companies use her definition of Heirloom I would say she is as good a source as one can get on this topic
Organic has absolutely nothing to do with this and as a matter of fact, most of the heirloom seeds sold are NOT certified organic. Seed savers Exchange and Fedco both offer certified organic heirloom seed but neither offers only organic heirloom seed, they also have conventionally grown heirloom seed. The heirloom seed offered by Burpee, Parks, etc., are not certified organic at all and in some cases have fungicide treatments that would make the land they are planted upon uncertifiable for 3 years or would decertify organic land.
Hybrid seed can be certified organic. I have bough pounds of such seed in my life. Hybrid cannot be heirloom as others here have explained Ohiorganic