SEEDS EXPLAINED: Heirloom, Hybrid, Organic, and GMO Seeds 🌰

As you're thumbing through your seed catalogs for the upcoming season, you might be confused by common terms for seeds. Are GMO seeds bad? What even ARE heirloom seeds. And what about hybrids...they're not good to grow...or are they? In today's video I explain the common misconceptions about all of these seed types to help you make sense of your seed shopping this year.

0:00 - Intro
0:43 - GMO Seeds
2:21 - Hybrid Seeds
4:43 - Organic vs. Conventional Seeds
7:19 - Heirloom Seeds
10:12 - Outro

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[HandToolRescue]

I actually have a Ph.D. in plant science and I approve of your quick overview of seeds. Just one extra thing, most GM plants are F1 hybrids that ensure you won't get the same plant if you saved seed each year. Also, I've been breeding/crossing my own tomatoes from heirloom varieties for years. If you want to give some a try, I can send some your way!

[danny___]

you’re the elite four grass pokémon master obviously :)

[despyvat]

I live in Greece. For at least 30 years in my family we collect the seeds of our traditional varieties at the end of the season and use them the next year. My grandparents did it first and now we continue doing it . The flavour and the characteristics of the vegetables remain the same all these years. I never had any problems with diseases of any kind. I try to donate these traditional (heirloom as you say) seeds to people that seem willing to retain them, as a safety measure in order to save these varieties. Anyway, in Greece there are some popular organisations that have as a goal to protect the traditional varieties of our country, and many people prefer using such seeds in order to be autonomous. Moreover the flavours of these vegetables/fruits/etc are incomparable. Thank you for the interesting video.

[ramonebrown]

I've saved seeds from a hybrid cherry tomato. The plants that grew from those seeds produced tomatos that were bigger and oblong shaped instead of round like a cherry tomato. I'd figured this was due to cross polination from other tomatos in the garden, but your explanation about unstable hybrids makes sense too.

[brmble]

Massive respect for you with this video dude. I see a LOT of people saying that "natural" is inherently better. Or that GMO is as bad as nuclear waste (without providing any evidence). Life is not as simple as good and bad, why should we expect plants we've messed with for thousands of generations to be any different.

[HiddenSpringFarm]

Love all this seed talk...got my seeds, got my rack, got my trays, got my lights...just waiting for the right time to start my seeds...I don't wanna jump the gun and plant too early...exciting. Awesome video, lots of information Kevin, Thanks bud. Cheers, Chad from up in Ontario, Canada.

[kimtheexcitedbull]

I really appreciate you pointing out that none of these things are "bad" our need to assign moral values to things like foods and seeds causes so many issues! Great video, great info, as always!

[renbortosky]

Thanks for this video! As an ecologist I knew the definition of GMO and organic seeds (and you explained them well!) but I didn't know what the other terms meant. I am starting my second year of gardening soon and just purchased a bunch of heirloom seeds. Hopefully I'll grow more vegetables this year!

[bencunningham]

I did the organic versus conventional and had mixed results. The organic out performed conventional in the garden but in pots the conventional out performed the organic. Most of our planting is in the garden so organic it is but with yields I had last year I may have to go back to conventional because it was too much haha. Bought a squash plant from aldi's a few years ago and it had seedlings inside when we opened it so we planted it and had great results. We're now onto the 3rd generation of the squash and each year we have an abundance of squash. Needless to say we've mastered the different ways to cook with it.

[Oredraven]

Perfect timing. I'm working on getting seeds together for the year and would like the option of saving seeds. I've done some research on this stuff, but was still a bit unsure. You've explained everything clearly. Appreciate it.

[THERUSTEDGARDEN]

Im with you 100% on the GMO and seed packs. Thanks for informing everyone.

[kitdubhran]

I like the idea of an heirloom that I let evolve to work best in my location, and just keep saving the seeds from. That just seems like it would make my life easier. 😄

[razabazal]

Your videos are getting addicting for me. All of these other garden youtubers do not have the humbleness you present with your MacGyver like ideas for using space. Keep growing my friend.

[MageGrayWolf]

Open-pollinated is the thing to look for if you want to save your seeds. All Heirloom seeds are open-pollinated but not all open-pollinated seeds are heirloom.

[anthonyshea]

I wish I had your explanations last year before putting in so much effort to come to you exact explanations of seed definitions. Would've save me hours of research. I agree whole heartedly on herluim definition. It's not the age of the breed but it's stability and ability to constantly reproduce traits generation after generation.

[charnaa]

Just the other day I was researching this topic. You explained it great, in a simple and understandable way. A lot of people don't actually know that the history of modern genetics came from a friar in the 19th century experimenting with peas and observing what happened :D
Back to the topic, I've noticed that smaller gardeners usually prefer heirloom and organic seeds, while big companies use hybrids for a bigger and better crop yield (at least in my country, as far as I know all the bigger corn plantations are all hybrids or gmo). Which for me makes sense: I want to save my seeds and be able to grow the same plants over and over again, because I grow things for myself. As for big companies and farms their livelihood depends on the crop yield - so they opt for hybrids or gmo to make sure they can get that required harvest.

[karmacomacure]

So true about GMO but also need to take into consideration that sometimes the packets we buy can be "contaminated" by GMO and that would affect us if we were saving our own seeds at the end of that growing season. I had gotten beet seeds from baker creek and they contacted me saying their sugar beet seeds tested positive for gmo contamination :/

[bradmaas]

Keep in mind if you are raising two varieties of the same plant, proximity can affect them also You can raise two varieties of heirloom tomatoes in the same bed and some of the fruit will be from each of the varieties and some will become that F1 hybrid you were speaking of.

[jujube]

I am 100% heirloom tomatoes all the way! I did grow 2 plants (of one hybrid) for its sheer production value.... to share with neighbors etc. But the flavor is soooo much better with the heirlooms... and I have never been able to be convinced otherwise...but I often get less fruit...

[marihannah]

Using the photo boxes for seed storage, is an excellent tip! That really helped me to organize my seeds and keep them that way.
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