With so many different types of seeds, one may wonder what ever happened to a seed being well..just a seed? Unfortunately, in our world where man is forever trying to improve upon God’s design, a seed is no longer just a seed.
Once upon a time as a plant grew, bloomed, and produced a viable seed, the seed would drop to the ground and the following year a new plant just EXACTLY like it would sprout and the cycle of that species of plant would start over again. It was dependable and predictable. We can and do still have those predictable seeds, but we just have to be diligent to ensure they stay that way.
Let’s start in the beginning.
In this article we will discuss the different types of seeds and answer the questions what open-pollinated, heirloom, hybrid, and GMO or GM seeds means. While we’re at it, we’ll talk about what the word organic means as well.
Different types of seeds 1: WHAT IS AN OPEN-POLLINATED SEED?
There are many different types of seeds. First let’s talk about open-pollinated seeds.
If a seed is open-pollinated that simply means you can SAVE seeds from that plant to grow next year and those new plants will produce the same as their parents did the previous year. They will grow the same, produce the same, look the same, and taste the same. They will be dependable and predictable. Here’s how this works. If you have two plants in the same genus, species, and variety, any seed that is created from cross pollination or self-pollination between those two plants will be an open-pollinated seed. They are called open-pollinated because they are “open” to any means of getting pollinated whether from the wind, insects, by themselves, or by a gardener with a paintbrush. They MUST be from the SAME genus, species, and variety for this to be open-pollinated and therefore worthy for seed saving. Let’s do a quick review over cross-pollination and self-pollination.
UNDERSTANDING CROSS-POLLINATION and SELF-POLLINATION:
Before we continue with discussing the different types of seeds, an understanding of pollination is needed.
Cross-pollination can occur in two ways. One way is when you take pollen from a male flower and use the pollen to pollinate a female flower if the plant has separate male and female flowers, see the butternut squash blossoms below. The other way is when you take pollen from the male part of a flower and use the pollen to pollinate the female part of another flower, see the Lily.
Let’s better understand this by using the butternut squash flowers as an example. Butternut squashes have separate female and male flowers, which rely on insects or manual pollination to get the pollen from the male flower over to the female flower in order to set fruit or in this case, squash.
Above is an example of a butternut squash female flower that is currently blooming in my garden.
Above is an example of a butternut squash male flower that is currently blooming in my garden. Notice the pollen dust?
As you can see these are two separate flowers. This is cross-pollination.
Cross-pollination like this can also occur in flowers that have both a male and female part on the same flower as in the Lily example below.
Above you can see this lily flower has a female and male parts on the same flower. The longer thing in the center (the pistil) is the female part and the shorter yellow things (the stamens) around are the male parts. If you had several of these lily flowers and pollen was transferred by insects from the male part on one flower to the female part on another flower, this is also cross-pollination.
Now let’s go over self-pollination. Self-pollination is when flowers pollinate themselves. This can be understood in the pea flower example below.
Above is a picture of a lovely pea flower. Pea flowers are said to be self-pollinating. This means that not only does each flower have male and female parts like the lily, but that the pea flower pollinates itself BEFORE it opens. To be more exact about it, we could also say that any flower that receives its own pollen has been self-pollinated, but just know that the term self-pollination should only be reserved for those plants that pollinate themselves before they open.
(Time out here: If you’re hoping for a better understanding of the differences between male and female squash flowers and how to hand pollinate them, check out this article.)
Different types of seeds 2: WHAT IS AN HEIRLOOM SEED?
Another different type of seeds after open-pollinated is the heirloom seed.
Remember this ALL heirloom seeds are open-pollinated, but not all open-pollinated seeds are heirloom seeds.
Just like a wedding band from a great grandparent handed down from generation to generation can become a family heirloom, seeds in the same way can become heirloom seeds. This simply means that the seeds have been passed down from generation to generation. For the seeds to get “accepted” as heirloom seeds in the world then those seeds also must come with a story or a heritage and most people agree it’s seeds that were introduced to the United States seed trade before 1940/1950. See how simple understanding heirloom seeds are? All heirloom seeds are open-pollinated, but not all open-pollinated seeds are heirloom seeds.
Different types of seeds 3: LET’S TALK ABOUT HYBRID SEEDS:
The third different type of seeds are the hybrid seeds.
Hybrid seeds are pretty easy to understand once you understand open-pollinated. Remember how open-pollinated seeds MUST come from the SAME genus, species, and variety for it to be considered open-pollinated? Hybrid is when the seeds are created from plants sharing the same genus and most often the same species, but not the same variety. Hybrid seed packets you buy should say hybrid or F1 on it. Hybrid seeds are created when pollen from one species or variety within a genus pollinates a DIFFERENT species or variety in the same genus. *Hybrids are made by man in order to create better disease or pest resistance or maybe deer won’t particularly be fond of them or perhaps they’ll have better drought tolerance; there are many reasons, all good reasons, to create hybrids. There is absolutely nothing wrong in regards to health and nutrition when consuming hybrids. Nothing at all. The problem with hybrids lies in saving seed.
Since hybrid seeds are created by crossing two different species or varieties within the same genus, if you go to plant those seeds that you collected from your hybrid plant, a number of things could occur.
- the seeds may not germinate at all
- the plants or fruits may not be uniform since they would revert back to whatever parent plant they came from
- the taste could be terrible, again due to them reverting back to one of the parent plants
- any number of things could happen
Even if you got lucky and they produced great for you one year, the next year could be a dud. In other words, saving seeds from hybrid plants are not dependable or predictable.
*I said earlier that hybrid seeds are made by man. While it is true that commercial hybrid seeds are made by man, hybrid seeds can also be created naturally in nature and in the backyard garden. To create them in the backyard garden is easy and is a common mistake that beginning backyard gardeners make when planning to save their seeds to plant the following year. In order to avoid accidentally creating hybrid seeds in your backyard garden, make sure you only plant ONE species and variety within each genus at a time or you could stagger species and varieties based on their bloom time, which means when one species and variety would be done blooming, the next species and variety would bloom soon after. It’s not all dependent on YOUR garden though. Unfortunately, if your neighbor is growing a garden too, they could be growing a species or variety you’re not which can create a hybrid. Thankfully, there are ways around this such as tagging and bagging your blossoms and fruit and spacing them out. Spacing plants out can be quite difficult for most backyard gardeners. Some plants need just a few feet, others a few hundred feet, and others like, corn, up to 2-5 miles since corn is wind pollinated.
Different types of seeds 4: THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK: GM SEEDS:
The fourth different type of seeds to talk about are GM seeds.
This type of seed is unnatural and wrong on many levels, in my personal opinion. First off, let’s get some definitions out of the way. GM=genetically modified. GMO=genetically modified organism. GM seeds came out in the 1970s-1990s. The idea behind GM seeds sounds good…on paper. In layman’s terms, the process takes genetic material from…something…non-food and injects it into the seed of our food. This genetically modified seed becomes a genetically modified plant that produces genetically modified crops that we eat. The idea was that by creating GM seeds, they could produce plants that would have better pest and pesticide tolerance. For example in GMO corn, the Bt delta endotoxin was injected into the corn seed, through complicated science lab jumbo, for the purpose of using the Bt to kill the Lepidoptera larvae. This Lepidoptera caterpillar bores into corn destroying it. To kill the caterpillar, the caterpillar must ingest it. Shortly after ingesting the corn, the Bt toxin binds to the gut wall and the caterpillar stops eating. Within a few hours, the gut wall breaks down, and the insect dies of septicaemia as bacteria multiply and build up in the blood.
Another example of a GM crop would be Roundup Ready Corn or Glyphosate Tolerant Corn. This type of GM corn has been genetically modified to contain the genetic codes for herbicides. What this means is that when farmers need to spray their fields with Roundup for weed control, the corn doesn’t die because it is resistant to the herbicide. Don’t forget that glyphosate is carcinogenic, which means it is well known to cause cancer.
See in both examples, GM “sounds” great on paper, but the facts are clear. GM crops pose a health risk when consumed and damage the environment; in fact, many countries have banned GMOs. I won’t go into details about the health risks, but you can read PubMed’s article on The Health Risks of Genetically Modified Foods here. According to PubMed consuming GM foods “…may cause some common toxic effects such as hepatic, pancreatic, renal, or reproductive effects and may alter the hematological, biochemical, and immunologic parameters…it increases IGF-1 which may promote cancer…” As far as damaging to the environment goes, these GM crops like the Roundup Ready Corn or Glyphosate Tolerant Corn has created weeds that are now resistant to the herbicides, so farmers are having to use more herbicides and additional kinds as well. These herbicides are contaminating our soil’s health and our water supply. The food we grow doesn’t do as well when the soil is contaminated. Our health declines when we eat food grown in this soil and drink the contaminated water. Please don’t forget the wildlife as they’re affected too. The plants they eat are poisoned, which in turn make them sick. The Monarch butterfly population has dwindled as well as many others, due to their particular food source being killed. I could go on, but I think you understand. I’m sure you can imagine my view on using pesticides or herbicides in the garden too.
As far as getting the GM or GMO seeds, thankfully everyday backyard gardeners cannot as of now. They are currently only available to commercial farmers. Just keep in mind though that if you live next to a commercial farm or in the case of corn within 5 miles of a commercial corn field and you are growing corn too, your corn can be contaminated and turned into some kind of GM/hybrid.
ORGANIC vs. NON-ORGANIC:
We discussed the four different types of seeds, now let’s talk about what organic means as even seeds can be considered organic or not.
Now that we learned about the different types of seeds, let’s quickly go over what organic really means. Organic means that the seed or plant or crop was grown organically, which means it was grown WITHOUT any synthetic, man made chemicals. It was grown without Roundup or any brand of glyphosate or any unnatural pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, or unnatural fertilizers, etc… Another wonderful thing about organic is that for something to be considered organic, it cannot be GM or GMO. In other words organic=clean, as close to as what God intended. I mention this because you will find some seed packets that say organic, just know that hybrid seeds can be organic just like some open-pollinated seeds can be non-organic.
MY PERSONAL SEED PREFERENCE in regards to the different types of seeds:
When I go to purchase seeds, I look for them in this order:
organic heirloom
heirloom
organic open-pollinated
open-pollinated
That’s it, I personally don’t grow any hybrids since I save seed.
I do hope this helps to shed some light on what these terms mean and helped you to better understand them.
Have a wonderful gardening season and enjoy the learning journey!
