so I'm getting ready to do my first Organic, non-GMO, Heirloom seed vegetable garden this year. it will be about half an acre. but I do have some other neighbors that grow gardens and wander if anyone here has run into problems with crossing breeds and loosing the Heirloom ability or saw a decline in germination rates that sort of thing. we keep Bees and they are sure to cross pollinate with every plant for some miles around us but will this be a noticeable problem for trying to go GMO free and Heirloom? we have just about got all the Neonicotinoids out of the area so that should stop killing the bees, but plants many people pick up from the local nurseries are sprayed with poisons and fertilizers and all sorts of stuff. whats a guy to do? just a little fyi http://www.globalresearch.ca/death-and-extinction-of-the-bees/5375684
Yes, i actually grow a mix of heirloom and hybrids. I try to keep my tomatoes heirloom, so that I can harvest seeds for the next crop. While I do have heirloom seeds for peppers (sweet & hot) I usually end up growing hybrids due to various reasons.
On one of these threads, someone cut down their green bells and re- grew them every year and they just get bigger. There is a peppers help thread and I think it is there. I bet @Motomom34 knows exactly which one
Yup, peppers are perennials not annuals. They just usually get killed by the frost/freeze during the winter.
I've had Jalapenos live throughout the Winter of no less than 20*F, but up next to the house. Rancher
It's difficult to be completely free of GMO-tainted cross fertilization. Perhaps you could share some seeds with your neighbors to avoid some of it. You could cover some of the flowers with a paper bag and hand-pollenate to ensure a pure breed for next year's seeds (I've seen that with corn, but I'm sure other plants can be done that way too). I don't think all hybrid seeds are from GMO plants but it's hard to know how big the subset is. My preference is to order non-GMO seeds -- which may have hybrid strains. Probably need to bug someone who works in this field to get a good explanation.
in all honesty your own garden will cross pollinate your seeds if you don't take precautions. So if you are seed saving and want 'pure strains' then you need to keep the bees and insects off and hand pollinate. I don't worry about hybrids I just grow and let my seeds drop and reseed. OR I just buy new seeds every year. There are some seeds I exchange with others that I keep 'pure' but that is a whole other way to garden. GMO are genetically modified seeds hybrids are the traditional way of cross breeding plants to get better plant characteristics. Heirlooms - these are old varieties that many hybrids come from. the silly part of all these that all heirlooms are a hybrid at one point ... someone crossed plants until they got the taste, color or yields they wanted. I just got seeds for a type of sorrel (spinach) from Macedonia that I have been trying to get for 5 years its called 'Kiselecs' pronounce 'Key cell ets' its used in spanokopia and its a leaf lettuce spinach cross. I think is like a sorrel (here are links to some recipes Macedonian Pie Of Greens And Cheese Recipe Rustic Sorrel Omelette (Kiselec so Jaca) | Village Feast i love this kind of thing, finding obscure types of plants Gardening depends on what your goals are. I love good food with great taste and weird plants. Suggestion if I may? Don't plant a whole half acre in a garden. You will exhaust yourself. Start small and mix up with interplanting like marigolds and garlic to off set bugs etc.