How to Grow Heirloom Vegetables With Cross Pollination
Heirloom vegetables are vegetables that are grown from year-to-year from saved seed and cross-pollinated to reproduce new vegetables. Some gardeners prefer to grow heirloom vegetables because they have superior flavor to hybrids that are grown for other features such as drought tolerance. Heirloom vegetables grown from seeds over time will improve in flavor and become adapted to your climate conditions as you save seeds from reliably performing plants over time. Does this Spark an idea?
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Heirloom seed
- Heirloom plants
- Mattock
- Rototiller
- Compost
- Peat moss
- Manure
- Shovel
Instructions
-
-
1
Select seed or bedding plants from heirloom varieties of vegetables. You can purchase heirloom vegetable seeds and plants from nurseries that specialize in such plants. Never purchase more than one variety of the same vegetable plant to prevent creating a hybrid seed through cross pollination.
-
2
Prepare your garden soil by breaking the soil with a mattock or a rototiller. Spread soil amendments over the soil including compost, peat moss and well-rotted manure. Mix the amendments into the soil with your rototiller or a rake.
-
-
3
Plant two rows of each plant to allow for ease of cross pollination among plants that do not self-pollinate.
-
4
Dig holes for bedding plants and place the root ball of each plant in its own hole. Cover the root ball with soil and water.
-
5
Create furrows in the ground with a garden hoe. Plant seeds in the furrows twice as deep as the seed is wide. Cover with soil and water.
-
6
Choose the best plants to save seeds from. The vegetables from these plants should be superior to the rest of the vegetables in the garden. Allow the produce to fully ripen before harvesting them. Scoop the seeds and pulp out of the vegetables. Wash away the pulp and allow the seeds to dry before storing them in a cool, dry location.
-
1
References
Resources
- Photo Credit tomato image by maiky911 from Fotolia.com
