Are you looking for easy-to-grow plants for your garden? It can be tough to pick which plants to grow at home, especially in small gardens or rooftop areas. A wide array of plants can be grown easily in home gardens, even without much maintenance. Heirloom plants are one of these. These plants are easy to grow in gardens and farms. They are used as food in many communities. So, read on to learn more about these plants.
What are Heirloom plants?
The term Heirloom stands for an ancient species or various garden plants. These plants include a variety of vegetables, fruits and sometimes even flowers. Usually, these kinds of plants have been cultivated by people for centuries. In the 1950s, commercial hybrid seeds came to the market. But before that, these plants were a widely used way to grow crops in the garden or small areas. These days, the demand and supply of heirloom seeds are majorly controlled by Europe, South America or the Southern part of Asia.
How to grow heirloom plants?
Growing these plants is relatively easy. Let’s have a look at these tips to grow heirloom plants easily.
- You can pick your favorite crop based on its appearance, flavor, adaptation to local conditions, disease resistance and drought tolerance. Keeping these factors in mind will make them ideal for gardening.
- These vegetables can also be susceptible to various diseases. Proper crop rotation, soil control, cover cropping, garden hygiene, etc., can help prevent these issues. You can also take the help of various fungus management processes along with antibacterial medicines.
- To improve the ultimate production of these plants, avoid over or under-watering. This can lead to splitting, fungal diseases and poor germination. You need to have a robust timer setup to manage consistent watering.
- Make sure that you have a good ratio of micronutrients in the soil. Without proper soil mixtures, no plants can grow well.
- Try mulching for such plants; it can prevent soil splash when watering the plants.
- Preserved vegetables or fruits can quickly adapt to local conditions. It will benefit future generations by conserving seeds and preserving food. So, always store heirloom seeds for further use.
Best varieties of heirloom plant
Heirloom plants include almost all kinds of fruits or vegetables. Here are some common crops best used as these plants.
Beans
- Cherokee trail of tears
- Rattlesnake pole
- Kentucky Wonder
- Potomac
- Scarlet Runner
- Brittle Wax
- Fowler
Cucumber
- White Wonder
- Lemon colored cucumber
Lettuce
- Paris white cos
- Deer tongue with pointed leaves and thick ribs
- Winter Density
- Tom Thumb
- Black seeded Simpson
Potatoes
- Russian banana variant with yellow flesh and size of banana
- Yellow finns with yellow skin
Tomatoes
- Brandywine
- Cherokee Purple
- Amish paste
- Black krim
- Green Zebra
Corn
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- Bloody butcher
- Strawberry popcorn
- Golden bantam
Carrot
- Touchon
- Red Cored Chantenay
- Danvers Half Long
- Scarlet Nantes
Radishes
- Cherry bell
- Crimson
Watermelon
- Moon and stars
- Cream of Saskatchewan
- Sweet Siberian
- Blacktail mountain
Why should you pick heirloom plant for your garden?
Growing heirloom plants is gaining popularity. Here’ why:
- Heirloom plants have a rich flavor, which makes the fruits or vegetables tastier.
- You can easily save the seeds for the next season without affecting any tree feature.
- These seeds store the original characteristics of the plant. For this reason, these kinds of plants or seeds are used in scientific agricultural research.
- These plants are easy to grow in small spaces like rooftop gardens or small yards in front of homes.
FAQs
What is an heirloom plant?
These plants are very old species with nature's intended pollination process. It can easily be passed down from one generation to another.
What are prominent examples of heirloom plants?
Usually, fruits and vegetables are the main examples of such plants. Beans, capsicum, carrots, tomatoes, beets, watermelon, etc are major heirloom plants grown by gardeners and farmers.
What is an heirloom flower?
These flowers are open-pollinated flowers that have been preserved for more than 50 years.
Do hybrid plants taste good compared to heirloom plants?
Hybrid plants do not offer any good taste. On the other hand, heirloom plants are rich in original flavor dating back centuries.
What is the specific soil mixture used for heirloom plants?
You need to add more micronutrients to the normal soil mixture. Also, vermicompost can work well to grow these plants.
Are all heirloom fruits organic?
No, not all heirloom fruits are organic.
| Got any questions or point of view on our article? We would love to hear from you. Write to our Editor-in-Chief Jhumur Ghosh at jhumur.ghosh1@housing.com |
