Heirloom Seeds...Where to find???

[BlountArrow]

Know any good sources to purchase Heirloom Seeds? Specifically, to name a few, I'm looking for:

Okra
Cherry Tomatoe
Zuchini
Squash
Cucumber
Sweet Potato
Punkins
Bell Peppers (aren't these Red Peppers too)?
Tomato for stewing/canning (type?)
Carrot
Watermelon
Cantaloupe

 

[catman529]

Victory seeds, Johnny seeds, tomatobob.com are a few places I have bought from.

 

[BlountArrow]

Thanks, cat. Looks like VictorySeeds has a great selection. This is appears to be what I'm looking for.

 

[a retrohillbilly]

Fedco, Seed Saver's Exchange, Baker Creek

 

[Pic IN the Casa]

Seed Savers is a very good catalog.

 

[WestTn Huntin man]

Totally Tomatoes.
http://www.totallytomato.com/

Seedsavers is a good source also.
http://www.seedsavers.org/onlinestore/

 

[WestTn Huntin man]

Know any good sources to purchase Heirloom Seeds? Specifically, to name a few, I'm looking for:

Okra
Cherry Tomatoe
Zuchini
Squash
Cucumber
Sweet Potato
Punkins
Bell Peppers (aren't these Red Peppers too)?
Tomato for stewing/canning (type?)
Carrot
Watermelon
Cantaloupe

You will need to be careful with your plantings.Many of the plants you've listed will cross pollinate if planted to close together.

 

[catman529]

Know any good sources to purchase Heirloom Seeds? Specifically, to name a few, I'm looking for:

Okra
Cherry Tomatoe
Zuchini
Squash
Cucumber
Sweet Potato
Punkins
Bell Peppers (aren't these Red Peppers too)?
Tomato for stewing/canning (type?)
Carrot
Watermelon
Cantaloupe

You will need to be careful with your plantings.Many of the plants you've listed will cross pollinate if planted to close together.

The only plants on that list I can see a problem with are the squash. Zucchini and yellow squash will cross pollinate and are insect pollinated... You can hand-pollinate the blooms (there are male and female flowers) but that's something I can explain another time... Tomatoes, the different varieties can cross pollinate via insects, but it's not that likely because the blooms are self-pollinating and will usually "do themselves" before an insect can bring pollen from another variety.

Also, cross pollinating won't be a problem if you aren't saving seeds. Unless you grow corn, in which case you can get different kernels from cross pollination of different varieties of corn. For all the plants listed, cross pollination will not show until you grow seeds saved from the fruit. I wouldn't worry about it...

 

[WestTn Huntin man]

Yes squash,punkins and other cubits can cross pollinate.Grow a hot pepper to close to a Bell pepper and they will cross into a hotbell pepper. one big reason I grow Heirlooms is to save seeds.Keep them in a separate garden or a good distance away from other cubits to avoid problems when saving and swapping seed.

http://lancaster.unl.edu/hort/articles/ ... bits.shtml

 

[BlountArrow]

Great info. This is what I'm looking for. I had heard of certain gourds cross pollinating with others, and I knew I had to be careful with that. I've heard they can actually be poisonous but that the taste is so rancid you wouldn't eat it (don't know if there is truth to that). Is there any good literature, books, etc out there that I could buy that would help me gain more knowledge that you would recommend. Man, if I had only gotten interested earlier or if my papaw had only lived a few more years...what a wealth of knowledge he would have been on this subject for me to go to.

 

[catman529]

Yes squash,punkins and other cubits can cross pollinate.Grow a hot pepper to close to a Bell pepper and they will cross into a hotbell pepper. one big reason I grow Heirlooms is to save seeds.Keep them in a separate garden or a good distance away from other cubits to avoid problems when saving and swapping seed.

http://lancaster.unl.edu/hort/articles/ ... bits.shtml

you can hand pollinate cucurbits easily and then cover the blooms and mark them so you remember which ones to save seed from. I've never heard of a squash crossing with a cuke or melon or other cucurbit. I think they have to be closely related like zucchini and yellow squash or different cultivars like Connecticut field pumpkin and sugar pumpkins. I've never heard of bells and hot peppers crossing but it makes perfect sense. Just cover the blooms with some kind of mesh before they open, make sure the mesh is fine enough to keep out other pollen, and the flowers self pollinate inside the mesh without contamination

 

[woodchuckc]

Yes squash,punkins and other cubits can cross pollinate.Grow a hot pepper to close to a Bell pepper and they will cross into a hotbell pepper. one big reason I grow Heirlooms is to save seeds.Keep them in a separate garden or a good distance away from other cubits to avoid problems when saving and swapping seed.

http://lancaster.unl.edu/hort/articles/ ... bits.shtml

This is true, but you won't see the effects of cross-pollination unless you save seeds from the hybrid and grow them out. For example hot and bell peppers do cross, but the peppers from that year will be normal (hot peppers from the hot pepper plants, bell peppers from the bell pepper plants). Grow out the seeds you saved from the crossed peppers and you will get an unstable hybrid that you won't know the characteristics of until you get fruit (peppers).

Also, squash, pumpkins and many but not all varieties of gourds will certainly cross pollinate each other. I've got some pretty weird looking results from volunteer plants that I let grow in my garden once after I planted some gourds and yellow squash too close together the previous year.

 

[bigjohn]

Baker Creek Heirloom seeds best place with largest selection been ordering from them for years

 

[WestTn Huntin man]

Great info. This is what I'm looking for. I had heard of certain gourds cross pollinating with others, and I knew I had to be careful with that. I've heard they can actually be poisonous but that the taste is so rancid you wouldn't eat it (don't know if there is truth to that). Is there any good literature, books, etc out there that I could buy that would help me gain more knowledge that you would recommend. Man, if I had only gotten interested earlier or if my papaw had only lived a few more years...what a wealth of knowledge he would have been on this subject for me to go to.

http://mastergardener.tennessee.edu/ind ... ounty.html

I learned a lot from the Master Gardener program.Most counties have them these days. U.T. has a good program in place .
http://mastergardener.tennessee.edu/

 

[Pic IN the Casa]

^^^^ Me too.

 

[Deck78]

baker creek is the only way to go