Open Pollinated seeds are seeds that when pollinated by another plant of the same variety or self pollinated the resulting seeds will be ‘true to type’ or the same as the parent plants. Open pollinated seeds can be saved year after year and if their is no cross pollinating than the seeds will produce plants the same generation after generation.
Hybrid Seeds are seeds that result when 2 different varieties of the same species cross pollinate. The resulting seeds will be a mix of the various traits of the parent plants.
For example if a red cherry tomato crosses with a yellow beefsteak tomato than the seeds of this cross may produce a yellow cherry sized the following year. However if you save seed from this yellow cherry tomato some of the seeds will have one parents traits and some will have the other parents traits and some may still have the cross traits.
Heirloom Seeds are all open pollinated and are generally older varieties that have been around for many generations. The exact age an heirloom variety has to be to be considered an Heirloom is up for debate, some say varieties developed at least 50 years ago are considered Heirloom varieties while others say they need to have been developed before 1950 to be considered an heirloom.
Before the 1950’s is an important time frame I believe, because this was a time before seeds were bread for mass production, before traits like taste were bread out in favor of long shelf life and transportability......But this is a topic for another time!
Having said that their are plant breeders today who are developing varieties I call Heirlooms of the future. Varieties that are again bread for taste, plant vigor and diversity in colour and shape. These modern heirlooms are being breed and stabalised so they too can be open pollinated and saved year after year.
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