Organic Seeds Basics

Organic Seeds Basics
How do you know that the seeds you are buying are organically grown and where is the best place to buy organic seeds?
By Marcie Snyder
May 18, 2009

You know your soil is ‘clean”, that your soil is not contaminated in any way because you got your soil tested, so now comes the second step: looking for organic seed sources for organic gardeners. At this point you are probably asking yourself “How do I know that the seeds I am buying are organically grown and where is the best place to buy organic seeds?”

Well you can wait till the last minute and chance buying your seeds at your nursery or garden center. However, your best bet is to plan ahead and order via organic seed catalogs so you can determine whether the company’s seeds are labeled as organically grown.

When researching seed sources, organic seed buyers look for companies who can identify their seeds as having the following labels: “U” for untreated, “O” for organic, “OP” for open-pollinated, and/or “H” for heritage.

U — Untreated seeds are seeds which have not been coated with chemicals which may be harmful to soil life and humans. Some varieties of imported seeds are unavailable as “untreated” due to importing regulations.

Also, organic growers shun like the plague any seeds that have been genetically modified, that is, seeds in which the genes of anything from a pesticide-resistant weed to an animal or even a bacteria have been inserted or spliced right into the seed’s DNA.

There are two main reasons for this:

Organic growers have no idea how these injected genes will mutate into something that will endanger a person’s health, such as create different allergens in the food, damage the liver or the kidneys, combine with the good bacteria in the gut to create its own version, etc.

The second concern is the environment. Once introduced into the environment, no one can predict where the wind will carry the seeds, and there could be irreparable damage done if these genetically engineered plants cross breed with wild ones.

O — Organic seeds come from plants which have been grown via organic methods.

OP — Open-pollinated is the best type of seed because these seeds are capable of reproducing themselves.

To read the full article:
http://www.eartheasy.com/blog/2009/05/organic-seeds-basics/