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| I am asking this question to the "extremely experienced" gardeners:
If you grew two seperate vegetable gardens, one consisting entirely of hybrids - the other of all heirlooms (being careful to pick varieties equally suited to the climate/conditions), what differences would you notice? Have you seen difference other than the obvious specefic characterisitic bred into that variety? Thanks |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by oilpainter 3 (My Page) on Sun, Jan 3, 10 at 20:52
| Hybrids are bred for specific purposes. Take tomatoes--they may be bred to be bigger or more resistant to certain diseases or looks or plant size or any one or hundreds of reasons. Without hybridizing all tomatoes would be vines. It was plant hybridizing that gave us bush tomatoes. Are they better than heirloom varieties--not necessarily. Some hybrids are better and some heirlooms are better. Plants like animals evolve by natural selection. Heirlooms may be better at surviving weather conditions and have natural resistance to some diseases. The biggest bonus to growing heirlooms is that you can save the seed and have it come true to form, unlike hybrids which may or may not be true to form |
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| Another big bonus to growing heirlooms or open-pollinated varieties (besides seed saving) is the flavor when dealing with vegetables. There are some exceptions of course but if I used the 2-garden example you gave, my heirloom garden overall would taste better. ;) It would also have many more varieties of vegetables than are available as hybrids. Would either have more bugs or disease problems? Not in my experience. Would either grow faster? No. Produce better? No. If talking flowers then I think my hybrid flower garden would likely be more colorful - depending on what flowers I planted - more variety and more unusual colors. But honestly, it's not a fair comparison since it doesn't have to be an either/or situation. Neither is "superior" so grow both and get the benefits of both. Dave |
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| About 10 years ago, I got it in my head that I should be growing all heirloom plants. Now I'm back to a mix. In my experience, you can get bug and disease problems with any plant, but many hybrids are bred to resist the common diseases. For growth rate, it really depends on the plant. What you probably won't see a lot of with heirlooms are "dwarf" or "patio" size plants. Compact size is something that most farmers wouldn't have cared about. For overall appearance, you would probably see a greater variety of shapes and colors on the heirloom side, but it would likely look a little more "unkept" than the hybrid side. Hybridizers have placed a lot of emphasis on how the veggie looks. For taste, I think it really depends on the veggie. I'll give the heirlooms the taste award for tomatoes hands down. Carrots, potatoes, herbs, lettuce, zucchini, and many others - I can't tell the difference. |
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| About as I expected. A previous post got me thinking and I just wanted to ask the obvious. Hybridizing has surely been a boon to flowers and their diversity. As for vegatables, it has opened many new possibilities. I once watched a PBS program that was linked to a post that explained a great economic colapse in Holland during the 1600's because from the fallout of a Tulip Hybridizing fanatacism. If you search and read enough post Q and A here you'll learn everything you would ever want to know. Sometimes I like to ask just to be extra sure. Thanks everyone. |
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