Heirloom Plants
Heirloom plants are naturally open-pollinated cultivar that were commonly grown during earlier periods in human history. Before the industrialization of agriculture, a wider variety of plants were grown for human consumption.
Today, most food crops are grown in large mono-cultural plots. To maximize consistency, few varieties of each type of food crop is grown. These are selected usually for these reasons:
Nutrition, flavor, and variety are a secondary thought to production considerations. As a result, heirloom gardening can be seen as a reaction against this trend. Heirloom growers are motivated by some of these reasons:
To be an heirloom, a plant must be "open-pollinated", meaning it will grow "true to type" from seed. This excludes nearly every hybrid. Open pollination allows the same cultivar to be grown simply from seed for many generations.
Typically, heirlooms have adapted over time to whatever climate and soil they have grown in. Thanks to their genetics, they are often resistant to pests, diseases, and extremes of weather.
Many gardeners consider 1951 to be the latest year a plant can have originated and still be called an heirloom, since that year marked the widespread introduction of the first hybrid varieties. Some heirloom plants are much older, some being apparently pre-historic. |