Start Your Heirloom Seeds Indoors

The easiest way to boost your germination rate is to start your seeds indoors. This gives you the chance to get your precious heirlooms off to a good start. It's also a lot of fun to watch the seeds split open and tender green shoots unfurl.

It's also extremely easy and inexpensive to start your heirloom seeds indoors. You'll only need to purchase a couple of items and you'll be ready to go.

Gear required to start seeds indoors

• Peat pellets
• Tray with transparent lid

(Note that both of these items are optional -- it's not difficult to make do with subsitutes.

The easiest way to start your seeds is to use peat pellets. They look like this:

The pellets look like fat poker chips. In fact, they're made of dried, compressed peat moss wrapped in a biodegradable mesh. When you add water, the pellets expand to about 5-6 times their previous size.

You simply take a tray (or any sort of a dish small enough to fit inside a zip-lock bag) and arrange a single layer of pellets in the dish. Put in one for every seed you want to sprout. Then add 1/4 cup of warm water. The peat pellets may float at first, but soon they'll begin to absorb water and swell. You want just enough water that the pellets stop absorbing it, but there is no water left pooling in the bottom of the container. Pour off any excess water.

When the peat pellets are ready, place a seed in the small indentation in the top of the pellet. That's it.

Then put the transparent cover over the top of the tray. Or slide your dish into a ziplock bag. Place the tray in a warm place, out of direct sunlight. Add just a bit of water every day, enough so that the peat pellets soak up all the water. Within just a few days, you'll see your first sprouts.

That's all there is to it!

Using this method of indoor seed starting gives you an increased germination rate (in my experience, every single seed I've started in this fashion sprouts, with the exception of some very old spearmint seeds). Those of you who live in northern latitudes can get a headstart on the growing season as well.

It's also a thrill to watch your new plants change day by day. Now, get some seeds and get your gear together and start a seed today!

Getting started with heirloom vegetables

If you're excited about heirloom vegetables and ready to get started planting your own, then you're in luck! There is almost nothing that you need to buy, Most of your investment will be in time and patience, but you will be richly rewarded.

Heirloom vegetables are highly accessible. Nearly everyone can grow heirloom vegetables. This guide tells you exactly what you need to get started raising your own crop of heirlooms.

What you must have:

The following items are required:

• Heirloom seeds you want to plant
• Soil to plant them in (in a container or in the ground)

That's it! Yes, it's that easy. To get seeds, your best bet is to go online. Unless you're a member of the Seed Savers Exchange, check out Amishland Seeds. Lisa is a great lady and offers a great variety of seeds at good prices.

Keep this in mind: everything else is optional. Sure, you can buy some fancy organic fertilizer, or earth-friendly potting soil, or a fancy container. But you don't have to. You don't even need to buy a book to teach you how to grow heirloom vegetables. That's one of the most fantastic things about raising heirloom plants as a hobby.

I got started with heirloom plants for under $20 (that includes seeds and seed-starting kit). At that price point, everyone can afford to start a few heirloom plants. What's stopping you?

In the next post we'll discuss optional gear you might consider buying to help get you started. But remember, you don't need anything but seeds and a place to plant them.

Definition of an heirloom plant: what makes a plant an heirloom?

Once one begins learning about heirloom vegetables and plants, eventually one begins to ask: "What makes a plant an heirloom species?"

Even though the heirloom plant craze is small, already marketers have crept into this budding field. The word "heirloom" is applied to seeds and strains of plants the way the words "New and improved" are plastered on laundry detergent.

So who do you trust? And what does "heirloom" even mean?

What is an heirloom? Schools of thought

The specific definition of an heirloom plant are hotly debated. Some lean toward an open, inclusive definition while others are exclusive, insisting on provenance and documentation.

One school of thought looks at the age of the specific plant. An arbitrary time period, between 50-100 years, must define the age of the plant. Some choose specific years. 1945, the end of World War 2, is a popular cut-off date. Others choose 1951, because that was the year in which hybrid plants became popular.

Others choose a more cultural approach. They contend that a plant is an heirloom only if it is treated as such: if it is nurtured, selected and handed down within a family for several generations. (This sort of heirloom certainly has the best and most interesting stories attached to it.)

Finally, many include a subtype known as commercial heirlooms. These are cultivars sold by companies that have ceased to exist. The argument is that these plants have been selected by the same forces that choose other types of heirlooms mentioned above. Indeed, most commercial plants before the age of hybrids were family heirlooms that were recognized as commercially promising by a seed company, who then offered them to the public.

Characteristics of an heirloom plant

Regardless of age, nearly universal agreement exists on these characteristics of an heirloom:

• Hybrids must be open-pollinated (pollinated by natural mechanisms, such as bees, wind, birds, etc.)
• Hybrids are not genetically modified.

So now that these questions are answered, there's nothing stopping you from getting started with your own heirloom seed planting. Don't get too hung up on the exact definition or pedigree of your tomato. Just plant it, nurture it and enjoy its fruits!

Heirloom vegetables: Why they're interesting

If you tell one of your friends, "I'm really interested in learning more about heirloom fruits and vegetables," you're not likely to get more than a funny look. Even though heirloom plant varieties have enjoyed a recent renaissance among certain types of gardeners, they still don't have much of a mainstream following.

Here are some aspects of heirloom plants (especially vegetables and edible plants) that make them particularly interesting.

Heirloom plants are niche-specific

Every gardener and commercial farmer knows that climate is everything. Heirloom plants have been selected over hundreds of generations to preserve specific characteristics that make them thrive. The heirloom plants growing in a specific garden are a kind of historic record of successful reproduction in that specific environment. Over generations, plants that were successful and prolific were replanted to create a unique blend of species in each and every garden.

This gets even more interesting when one considers microclimate. In the same field or garden, patches of ground get differing amounts of rainfall and sunlight. Some types of plants thrive in slightly more or less light. Two types of pole beans growing side-by-side in your garden may have different needs. Raising heirloom vegetables and other plants makes you a sort of historical detective and gives you the opportunity to find a seed that loves each part of your garden.

Heirloom plants are disease-tolerant

Heirloom survivors have been selected by survival-of-the-fittest to resist pests and diseases. In olden times, farmers and gardners had very little recourse to pesticides, antifungals and other poisons. Weak and fussy plants died. The strong survived to be harvested, and of course the smart farmers preserved seeds from the best plants.

Local heirloom varieties tend to be tolerant of local conditions. For instance, South Florida heirlooms will be drought-resistant, will be better able to withstand harsh sunlight, and will tolerate Myllocerus undatus predation.

Heirloom plants offer genetic diversity

Some people are interested in heirloom plants because they want to prevent them from becoming extinct. When a rare animal becomes extinct, it is a tragedy and the extinction can have ripple effects throughout the ecosystem. When an heirloom plant becomes extinct, all of mankind is put at risk.

Here's why: agribusiness plantations rely on vast fields of monoculture. That's one plant, often genetically identical, spread across tens of thousands of acres. Now these plants are the peak of our scientific development. Their genes are patented. But a single novel disease can lay waste to an entire species.

Just like the Gros Michel banana fell to Panama disease.

Just like the American chestnut was almost wiped out by Diaporthe parasitica.

Just like potato blight caused the Irish Potato Famines.

It's happened before and it may happen again. Any time a large population relies on a single species to produce food, there is great risk of a novel pest or disease disrupting the food supply.

Heirloom plants support pollinating insects

Nearly all heirloom plants are open pollinators. Pollinating insects, especially bees, relish the variety of blossoms provided by heirloom plants. You can support our bee population and have a beautiful garden by adding some blooming heirloom plants to the mix.

... and they're different and awesome!

One of the most astonishing aspects of heirloom vegetables and fruits is the sheer variety of them. You'll see potatoes that are white, red, pink, blue, purple, even black. There are beans in every color and size you can imagine. Tomatoes as warty as a toad, tomatoes sweet as candy, tomatoes mottled green and red.

Heirloom gardeners rediscover flavors, too. Heirloom varieties have been preserved over time not just because they're hearty, but because they're delicious.

So order some heirloom seeds, put them in the ground and get ready to help save the world -- while you're growing a delicious dinner for yourself and your family.

Heirloom seeds - what they are and why they are awesome

Heirloom seeds come from plants that have been handed down within a family or community. What makes heirloom plants exciting is their genetic diversity. Individual strains and substrains of plants evolve and are nurtured and cross-bred to withstand very specific, localized conditions (weather, seasons, pests, diseases, etc.) so frequently heirloom strains are readily adapted to a niche.

The heyday of heirloom plants was in previous centuries, before modern genetic modifications were possible and travel was less frequent. Individual plants were less productive but a typical garden or field contained a wide variety of plants.

Heirloom plants display genetic diversity that is rapidly eroding in modern agriculture. Today, genetically altered and genetically identical crops are grown on thousands of acres at a time. A single fungus or novel pest could wipe out an entire region's food supply. These genetically altered plants are the vegetable equivalent of purebred animals: superior in many ways, but subject to diseases. Genetically-modified crops lack the hybrid vigor that keeps mutts (and heirloom plants) healthy.

By getting involved in heirloom seeds, you are helping the world to preserve its genetic diversity. You are helping to prevent the extinction of valuable plants. You are creating new heirloom seeds by planting, harvesting and replanting your seeds. And you are joining a community of like-minded people who want to preserve our heritage.

To learn more about the basics of heirloom seeds and why they are important, visit Seed Savers Exchange -- a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving garden biodiversity. Seed Savers members receive access to thousands of heirloom vegetables.

Plant something today -- for the future!