Different types of seeds. This is what you need to know!

Choosing seeds is difficult for many people. After all, what should you look out for? And is there such a thing as bad seed? In this blog, we explain 6 different types of seeds: GMO, F1 Hybrid, conventional, organic, Heirloom (open-pollinated), and coated (pelleted) seeds.

Let's start with what many people consider the biggest villain on the list: GMO, Genetically Modified Organism. The seeds and plants that grow from these seeds are genetically altered in a laboratory. During this genetic modification, genes from other plants, but sometimes also other organisms like fungi and animals, are added to the plant's gene. Corn, for example, is easily infected by a bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis. With GMO corn, they have added a piece of the genes from this bacterium to the DNA of the corn. This ensures that the bacterium can no longer infect the corn. This sounds like a great solution, but it is difficult to predict what side effects this DNA change might have. A piece of good news for you as a vegetable gardener: GMO seeds are not actually available for just anyone to buy. These are sold to companies, and if you want to buy them as a private individual, you really have to look for them specifically. So, you won't just come across them at a seed shop or the corner store.

The next on the list are F1 hybrid seeds. There is sometimes quite a bit of confusion about the difference between F1 hybrids and GMOs. Understandably, as both are bred under laboratory-like conditions, which leads many people to expect they are the same. However, you cannot create a GMO seed without a laboratory, but you can create an F1 hybrid. It is just much cheaper and easier to make a hybrid seed in a controlled environment like a laboratory. A hybrid seed is nothing more than two plants with desirable traits—for example, a tomato that is naturally disease-resistant and a tomato that produces super large, delicious tomatoes—crossed via cross-pollination. This happens in nature every day. When you cross these tomatoes correctly, you eventually get a tomato that has the good traits of both parents. A tomato plant that is highly disease-resistant and produces super large, delicious tomatoes. A hybrid of the two parent plants with desirable traits. But what does F1 mean? That simply means that the seed you are buying is the first descendant of the two plants with the desirable traits.

The major disadvantage of F1 seed for us as vegetable gardeners is actually the advantage for the seed seller. When you harvest seeds from the plants grown from F1 seed and sow them again, you are growing the F2 generation. The second generation after the parent plants with the desirable traits. However, this F2 plant will most likely not have the great traits of the parents and the F1. This plant might produce very small tomatoes and not be very disease-resistant. In that way, it is useless for us as gardeners to harvest these seeds, and we remain dependent on those who sold us the F1 seed.

So, F1 seed is not necessarily bad. It is actually excellent seed if you have limited space and want to be assured of a strong, resistant, and high-yielding plant. There is now even organic F1 hybrid seed. But if you do not want to be dependent on seed companies and want to provide your own seeds every year, you will want to harvest seeds from your plants. In that case, F1 seed is of no use to you, and you are better off choosing other types of seeds.

Conventional seed is actually the most common type of seed. It is harvested from plants that are allowed to be fed with synthetic fertilizer and sprayed with pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. All these are substances you would rather not see on your vegetables, and they also endanger nature. Furthermore, the seed is often sprayed with anti-fungal and anti-germination agents before it goes into the bag to protect it. Conventional seeds have been bred in the same way for years and are also used in agriculture. Because they have been produced for so long, there is an enormous choice of varieties, they are relatively cheap, and most garden centers carry them as standard in their assortment.

Organic seed is grown according to a long list of regulations regarding what is and is not allowed to be done with the plants and seeds. Unlike conventional seed, these seeds are grown without synthetic fertilizers and are not sprayed with chemical agents. However, organic pesticides are permitted. So, when you meet the list of requirements for organic seeds and can prove it, you may call your seed organic. If you want an organic vegetable garden, you should ideally also choose organic seeds.

Pelleted seeds are conventional seeds that have been encased in a coating. The seed has been pelleted. There are two reasons for doing this. The first is to make the seed easier for agricultural machinery to process. Lettuce seed, for example, is incredibly small, but when you put that seed into a larger pellet, it becomes much easier to process mechanically. The second reason is to treat the seeds with pesticides, growth-promoting substances, or other useful additives. In this way, the seed can be better protected, and it can be ensured, for instance, that it does not germinate too early. You may come across pelleted seed in your search for seeds, but they are not sold very often to home vegetable gardeners.

Then we arrive at the last category of seeds: heirloom seeds. But what are they? Heirloom literally means an 'inherited item'. These seeds are heirlooms from plants that are often over a hundred years old. However, there is no fixed definition for the name 'heirloom'. Seeds do not have to come from a plant variety that has existed for a hundred years, but often a variety has existed for a very long time and remains unchanged. The varieties that can call themselves heirloom have proven themselves as good varieties that give good harvests without pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. Many people enjoy growing these old varieties. The advantages are that they are often adapted to the climate and the environment where they are grown, they are reasonably resistant to diseases, they provide a good harvest, and you can save your own seeds from the plant, which allows you to be self-sufficient. The seeds almost always produce plants that resemble their parents, so your harvest is good every year. This makes heirloom seeds attractive to many vegetable gardeners.

There is not necessarily good or bad seed; a plant grows from everything. We will leave GMOs out of this discussion since we cannot easily buy these as vegetable gardeners anyway. Heirloom is not better or worse than F1 hybrid seed; it is just different. And conventional seed is the same seed as organic seed, only grown under different conditions, because synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are allowed for conventional seed and not for organic seed. But a San Marzano tomato is a San Marzano tomato, whether it is organic or conventional seed.

We ourselves choose in most cases to buy organic and/or heirloom seed, whether the latter is standard or F1 hybrid seed. The reason we choose organic F1 hybrid seed, for example, is space. For cucumbers, we only have room for a few plants. We want to be sure we can eat cucumbers, and by buying F1 seed, there is a greater chance that the plants will not get sick and will have a good yield. So why not use the advantages of F1 Hybrids? But to be fair, we sometimes choose conventional seed when organic seed is not available and we really want a specific variety, as is the case with Kalettes.

What is also an important reason for us to buy organic or heirloom seed is that we prefer to give our money to smaller, idealistic companies. Conventional seeds are sold by global players in the seed market, whereas organic or heirloom seeds are more often grown by small businesses. Also, organic and heirloom seeds are often stronger. Conventional seeds are harvested from plants that have been protected by chemical agents their entire lives. With organic and heirloom seeds, the mother plant is not, or is less, protected, and if it contracts a disease, it will likely not produce seeds. The plants that do not get sick and do produce seeds are the strongest. This way, every year you get seeds from the strongest and most disease-resistant plants. Consequently, the plants you grow from these seeds will be better adapted to your location, grow better, and be less likely to get sick.

Ultimately, we want as many people as possible to start a vegetable garden, whether that is with conventional seeds or heirloom seeds. You now know what the name of the seeds says about them, and you should be able to make a choice yourself. We judge no one (and you shouldn't either!) because they didn't buy organic seed because the budget simply didn't allow for it. Vegetables from your own garden using conventional seeds are better than no vegetables from your own garden at all. So buy seeds that fit your budget, or trade with friends or acquaintances. Usually, you don't need the whole packet anyway. Choose heirloom if you really want to harvest your own seeds so you don't have to depend on anyone else. You can improve your vegetable garden every year and learn about what is good and what is better. Step by step, vegetable by vegetable.