Ashok Gupta
A Hybrid Flower & vegetable is created when plant breeder intentionally cross pollinate two different varieties of plants,aiming to produce an offspring or hybrid that contains the best traits of each of the parents.
Heirloom comes from the seeds that come down from generations in a particular region or area and selected by gardeners for a special trait.Heirloom flowers and vegetables are open pollinated by insects or wind without human interventions.
Typical example are Tomato seeds of Basht( chennai) Distt. Udhampur marketed near Tamatar morh Kud,and Dessi gutta/gutti(Marrigold) traditionally grown for ages in Reasi area.
Why to choose Heirloom seeds?
* Exceptional taste and Flavour.
* Heirloom vegetables are like to be more nutrients than new varieties.
* Many gardener prefer heirloom vegetables because,They are open pollinated, which means you can save your own seeds to replant from year to year.
* The fourth advantage of heirloom is that they are “less uniform” than hybrids,which means they often do not ripen all at once.
* They are less expansive than hybrid seeds.
Benefits of Growing Hybrid seeds.
* Disease Resistance:-hybrid seeds offer disease resistance.
* Uniformity:- Hybrid seeds offer equaled uniformity,Commercial growers desire consistency whenever and where ever possible to have more market price.
* Yield and Vigour:- Yield can be double,growth rate increase.seeds emerge more vigorously and plants can perform better in adverse climatic conditions..
As a gardner we may choose Hybrids,heirlooms or combinations of both types of the garden e.g we require juicy tasty tomatoes of Kud,or hybrid once having less juice and taste and same as the case of flowers.We have to decide what we need. Hybrid Flower seeds , bigger size flowers and having less flavour or Desi Flowers having less size but more scented as well of more medicinal values.
Further, when we visit many villages during inspections, we find that farmers in general grow both Hybrid as well as Heirloom flowers and vegetables to have taste of both Hybrid for commercial marketing as well as heirloom for home consumption.
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