Seeds are an important part of gardening. They are the promise of a new plant, as a seed is a hard capsule that holds a tiny plant or embryo within it, and the needed nutrition to help it start to grow. When you look at the seed racks in the garden centres, there is a large assortment of different seeds, that come in different forms, which can be confusing. Gardeners can choose from organic, heirloom, open pollinated, F1 Hybrid, pelleted, primed seeds and seed tapes.

Organic seeds are grown without the use of any synthetic chemicals. They are grown organically by using only organic chemicals that have very little impact to the environment. Gardeners that choose to plant organic seeds may want to grow their gardens organically by using organic methods. If you choose an organic seed and opt to use synthetic chemicals in the garden, the produce it provides will no longer be organic.

Heirloom seeds are old cultivars that have been around for many generations. These are the seeds that your grandparents, and great grandparents used. They are open pollinated meaning that they are pollinated by nature such as the wind or insects. Heirloom seeds and open pollinated seeds are good for gardeners who like to save their seeds from one growing season to the next, as they will produce a plant similar to its parent plant. Gardeners choose heirloom varieties because they like the idea of carrying on tradition and many feel that the produce from heirloom seeds are tastier. Sometimes heirloom plants are more susceptible to disease, temperature and moisture fluctuations, and the end product may not be uniformly shaped, or store as long.

F1 or hybrid seeds are seeds that are artificially pollinated by hand. They are not genetically altered seeds which is working with a plants DNA. Hybrid seeds are a cross of two different varieties, creating a new variety. They take the best traits from each of the varieties and put them together to make a new variety. These plants tend to be more disease resistant and produce more uniform shaped, coloured, and sized, flowers and vegetables. Hybrid plants were created for commercial growers as they are looking for high yields that ripen at the same time, vegetables that transport well, and have a longer storage.

Primed and Pelleted seeds are seeds that have a coating of an inert material such as diatomaceous earth, placed around the seed to make the seed larger, and more uniform making the seed easier to handle. Often the smaller sized seeds are pelleted.

Pelleted seeds can also be 'primed' which causes faster germination because it is pre-germinated. Priming is a process of exposing the seed to moisture , allowing it to start to swell and then pelleted to stop the germination process until the seed is planted.

Seeds can also come in seed tapes.

Seed tapes make gardening easy, especially for small sized seeds. A seed tape is a strip of biodegradable paper with the seeds embedded in it. The seeds are spaced in the seed tape. To plant; create a shallow furrow and lay the seed tape in the furrow and cover it with soil. The seeds will come up and be exactly spaced, so there is no need for thinning out. 

-Jos

Jos Van Hage owns and operates two Art Knapp Home and Garden Centres in Prince George:

• Highway 16 West at Kimball Road
• Highway 97 North at Northwood Pulpmill Road.