Hybrid vs Heirloom

When picking out vegetables to grow in your garden,one of the decisions to make is whether you want hybrid or heirloom plants.  Since the distinction between the two is sort of confusing, we discussed their differences this afternoon on Homegrown (Martha Stewart Living Radio Sirius 112).  Here's the summary, along with some great vegetable sources.

The term heirloom refers to open-pollinated seeds/plants that were developed prior to the year 1940.  Open-pollinated means  that the plants were left for the bees, wind, or some other natural source to pollinate.  Heirloom varieties are often tastier than hybrids, but also less uniform in their growth and fruiting patterns.   Selected for desirable traits, like great flavor, heirlooms have not been "bred", but rather gardeners choose the best vegetables from the crop and saved their seeds.

Hybrids are plants whose parents have been intentionally crossed so that desirable traits show up in the offspring, resulting in vegetables that boast bigger fruit, disease-resistance, or a whole host of other beneficial characteristics.   Unfortunately, since hybrids available to us were usually originally designed for commercial purposes, the taste of hybrid vegetables have been often sacrificed for some other more industrial benefit (like bigger fruit or longer storage).  But this isn't always the case.  The hybrid cherry tomato 'Sun Gold' is one of Andrew's favorites.  Hybrids are often great choices for other reasons like more compact growth.

For the best heirloom vegetables, check out Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Seed Savers Exchange, and Seeds of Change.

And for the tastiest hybrids, as well as heirlooms, we love Johnny's Selected Seeds.