One of the choices you’ll need to make when purchasing seeds is whether to buy organic or conventional seeds. I often get asked about this and there’s a lot of public debate on the topic.
Chemicals such as fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides can make the in-season growing process much easier, but the downsides are that they leave chemical residue on the vegetables and poor ecosystems within and around the soil. Organic vegetables are grown without any chemicals, and organic seeds are seeds from organically-grown vegetable plants. In addition, the seeds themselves aren’t treated with non-organic fungicides or seed coatings.
At Homestead T.O., we only use organic seeds because we farm organically and believe in its benefits to our health and the environment. In addition, organic seeds were grown from plants that thrived and reproduced naturally and, where parent plants are naturally hardy and healthy, it bodes well for the genetic materials that get passed along to the seeds. We also love the many valuable heirloom vegetables that are available in organic seeds.
You may wonder why there are so many more conventional seeds in stores and online. Most seed companies have much more variety of conventional seeds because they are easier to grow on a large scale. If you have your heart set on a particular type of vegetable, you may end up needing to purchase conventional seeds if you can’t find an organic version of it. All is not lost however – you can still apply organic growing practices to them, which will give you similar results.
Feel free to email me if you’re having trouble finding a specific vegetable variety in organic form.
Homestead T.O. 