Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Found I hope a good source of seeds I'll be testing them out this year.
If anyone has any experiece with these folks please share.
(Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)

Limited grow bed space so I just planted
Crookneck-Early Golden Summer Squash
Lemon Cuke Cucumber

good one John, more people need to grow heirloom varieties Open pollinated all the way

Have no experience with them but have spent my seed dollars this year making certain I have open pollinated or heirloom seed varieties. Even though Territorial is selling Seminis seeds along with heirloom, etc., at least they do label what is open-pollinated and/or organic. So far I have heirlooms from Territorial, Seeds of Change, Seeds Savers Exchange, Botanical Interests, and Nichols Garden Nursery. Let us know how these go. Looks like Baker Creek has a lot to offer. It's always good to find companies outside of the AgroBiz side of things.

We have been getting our heirloom from Diggers Club, hope to keep at least one plant from each set for seeding.

Can some one explain "open pollinated"
Thanks

If you plant open-pollinated seeds, you will get the same type of item you plant. This is in comparison to hybrids (F1, F2, etc.) that will give you something but almost definitely not what you plant. Now this is within a particular vegetable. If you plant an open pollinated Black Beauty Zucchini, you will get Black Beauty Zucchini. If Black Beauty is actually a hybrid zucchini, you will get some other kind of zucchini. Hopefully, that makes sense. :p

Yes, Hybrids come from different parent lines and are bred to take on attributes of each of the parents but the second generation offspring will usually revert back to attributes primarily from one of the parents. Some second generation varieties may not even produce seed. Great for the seed companies, If you want the same plant next year you will need to buy more seed from them.
Hybrid seed do have their place but we need to keep the open pollinated varieties alive and well.

hybrids are vastly superior in many cases when it comes to pest and diesease resistance. i've gone down the road of seed collection once before and i found it a royal pain in the arse for the sake of saving $20 a year in seeds. I guess if you were full time gardening and feeding yourself 100% from your own produce it would make sense

To me, the importance of open-pollinated seeds comes when considering who is buying most of the world's seed companies. I personally choose not to purchase anything from Monsanto. Now, I know that's not practical and likely use something related to them everyday. However, seeds I can control. And, I'd prefer to make sure if there are those who decide they should attempt to control the world's food, I still have my own sources. Paranoid, maybe. But, what is it they say? You are only paranoid if they aren't really after you.

the plants may be superior in pest and disease resistance, but flavour-wise? I really like some of our heritage variety veggies

forget monsanto, the real threat is farm land being converted to bio fuel crops. There are already food riots in some african countries because the price of flour has sky rocketed in the past few years, and that's going to get worse with the UK announcing 5% bio fuel in all tanks by 2010.
Forget peak oil, peak FLOUR is going to hit you all decades before anything to do with oil. google flour prices and look at the trend. of course rich countries like most of ours won't feel the pinch for a long time, but then i plan on being able to grow most of my wn food long before then with techniques like AP.

I buy big bags of flour for breadmaking every couple of months. The price recently jumped from $13.20 for 12.5kg to 18.50 for the same size. They are expecting more rises soon.

how do you grow flour? doesn't it get al mushy with the water?

Don't know Steve... ask Joel... he's growing flour's at the shop isn't he

Just Planted some Batavian Full Heart, Endive.
Never even heard of that stuff.