Organic Vegetable Seeds and Plants

Organic vegetable gardening is growing in popularity each year. As it grows, people learn more about the practices that will give them the best organic produce. They learn about pesticides and fertilizers. They learn how to keep the soil free of synthetic or chemical products. They learn, too, about organic vegetable seeds.

Organic vegetable seeds are necessary if you are to have a truly organic garden. Otherwise you will be trying to grow organic vegetables with seeds that have already been exposed to chemicals. Some are hybrids, and will not supply you with true seed for the following year. Others may be genetically altered seeds.

Organic Vegetable Seeds – Advantages

Organic vegetable seeds offer 2 distinct advantages to the organic garden.

1. Growers of organic vegetable seeds use environmentally friendly techniques. Beneficial insects are released to control pests. Crops are rotated to further manage pests. This also controls weeds and diseases. Crops grown for organic vegetable seeds are mulched deeply and cultivated mechanically.

By contrast, non-organic vegetable seed crops are grown using a multitude of chemical fertilizers, fungicides, herbicides, and insecticides. Farms are permitted to use these poisons on seed crops right to the day of harvest since the seeds are not intended for human consumption. With this open permission, many apply chemical poisons at heavier rates than they would if these were food crops. If you buy non-organic vegetable seeds, you will have even greater concentrations of chemicals in your seeds than are present in conventionally-grown food. This is unhealthy.

2. Organic vegetable seeds are already adapted to organic gardening. When a crop is grown under organic conditions, it will produce seed that is ready to grow under similar conditions.

Conversely, plants grown from non-organic vegetable seed will take a year or two to adapt to the new way of growing and the new environment. It will not be as strong, as ready to fight off pests and disease.

Where to Order Organic Vegetable Seeds

Local nurseries and gardening stores offer few organic vegetable seeds. What they do offer may not be certified organic. Larger suppliers’ seed catalogs have organic vegetable seeds for some vegetables, but not all.

One of the best places we have found to order organic vegetable seeds is Main Street Seed and Supply. This company, which we review elsewhere on this web site, offers a variety of certified organic vegetable seeds. They sell in bulk, too, so whether you have a small organic vegetable garden or an organic vegetable farm, they can fill bulk seed orders readily. To read our review of Main Street Seed and Supply, click here or on the blue “Organic Seeds” tab at the top of this page.