THEN AND NOW: THE HISTORY OF OPEN POLLINATED SEEDS AND VARIETIES
The history of our favorite plant seeds—from vegetables and fruits, to herbs and flowers—is a long, rich, and colorful one.
Amazing, vibrant, and delicious botanical varieties of all kinds originally sprouted up from small gardens and farms, once upon a time. Out of humble beginnings, these very best strains were saved, perfected, and bred again and again, eventually giving rise to the booming and successful international seed industry we have today—and the many varieties available at Westar and other companies.
However, it must be said that each one of our favorite vegetable, flower, or other seed varieties didn’t come to grow and exist in the exact same way.
DIFFERENT METHODS FOR A RAINBOW OF VARIATIONS
Industry ultimately breeds innovation. While we have a burgeoning seed industry to thank for the many cherished plant breeds available to us today, each of these was developed, bred, and saved in a different way from certain other breeds—even different strains within the same species of plant, for example.
As the progenitors of today’s seed industry discovered long ago, every plant is different. Thus, every seed from each species must sometimes be developed a little differently from others in order to be uniquely successful, while containing all the desired traits for the very best crop.
You could say that there is no “right way” to develop a seed strain, in some respects. There is only what “works.” What’s more, breeding for certain traits in specific plant varieties was sometimes successful when using one method, but might have failed completely with other methods.
For this reason, many approaches to seed saving and breeding were developed over the centuries, bringing about many different seed types available for domestic and international purchase today.
Still, no type of seed is as time-tested, trusted, and reliable as open pollinated seeds.
WHAT ARE OPEN POLLINATED SEED VARIETIES?
What are open pollinated seeds? How common are they in today’s seed industry world?
Open pollinated seeds may be called the “simplest” and most natural of all varieties. Seeds are called “open pollinated” because there is nothing done to artificially close off or sequester their genetics when breeding them.
In this way, plants use their own natural devices for means of reproduction, receiving pollen and genetics in completely natural ways: from pollinators (birds, bees, etc.), wind, contact, and other things. For some plants that breed completely asexually (also called “self-seeders”), open pollination gives rise to a new generation of plants and seed that still more or less maintains the exact same traits as its parents.
In other words, these plants “breed true,” reaping very little diversity and variation in future generations. But they retain desired characteristics growers may want to keep from the generation previous.
For other plants, however—particularly cross-pollinators—open pollination may yield a new seed generation of greater diversity, for good or for worse. Genetics of cross-pollinators, if unprotected, can be influenced by other stands of plants—wild or cultivated—that grow nearby, if seed breeders aren’t careful.
As such, open pollination tends to be the most successful and only used with certain self-seeding plants and varieties. Though that’s not to say there can’t be great advantages to open pollinating cross-pollinators for expanded diversity. It can bring about new desired traits, or strengthen already established good traits.
On the other hand, open pollination may also bring about traits in some seeds that don’t help growers enhance their yields at all—or, desired traits may be lost. This makes open pollination a gamble, especially with plants that cross-pollinate.
Still, it’s a great way to get reliable seed stock from self-seeding breeds and species, or to develop all-new natural varieties.
It’s also considered an authentic, traditional, and sustainable way to save seed and preserve the diverse genetics and traits possible in each and every single plant crop species you could ever possibly grow.
A BRIEF SNAPSHOT OF A LONG SEED HISTORY
It can be said that open pollinated seeds were the very first original standard varieties of seed in history. They were also the very first seed saving method adapted and taken up for agricultural and gardening use.
This would make open pollination a tradition that probably dates back more than 10,000 years.
This is also reflected in the uses and names of open pollination seeds today. After all, they can also go by the name “standard seeds,” or even “heirloom varieties,” which are a just longstanding type of open pollination seeds available for purchase.
As the standard, even default way of developing seed strains, open pollinated seeds are the oldest types of seeds in the world. They are responsible for giving us the oldest breeds and varieties of plants available, including our enduring heirloom varieties, passed on from generation to generation.
Successful breeds used again and again were naturally pollinated by their own devices in ancient small farms and gardens. Among these, strong individual crops with increasingly more and more desirable qualities stood out from the crowd.
Seeds from these desirable plants were saved, then rebred naturally once more—over and over—leading to the foundation of today’s most popular fruits, vegetables, flowers, and more.
As the seed industry began to grow and expand to meet global demands, open pollinated seeds began to be newly developed, enhanced, and bred with more modern techniques around 300 years ago in the 18th Century.
Open pollination also preceded and gave rise to other types of seeds, such as “closed pollinators” and F1 hybrids.
THE MOST “NATURAL” TYPE OF SEED
Records on the history of open pollinated seeds aren’t precise, but this is mostly because the history of such seeds is essentially so simple, universal, and central to all of human history itself.
But all the same, who can we call the very first people to use open pollinated seeds? Looking at their history, it could easily be said the very first inventor and user of open pollinated seeds was mother nature herself.
And it’s true. This method, after all, most closely mimics nature, natural selection, and even evolution more than any other. It is also one of the most ancient and time-honored seed breed development approaches of all time.
Use of open pollinated seed varieties stretches way, way back, likely far beyond the very earliest records of human memory. Open pollinated seeds of some sort were developed by every agriculture-based culture around the world: whether in Asia, Europe, Africa, or the Americas.
When it comes to open pollinated seeds, there wasn’t any one single originator. In fact, it could be said that the collective globe contributed to the amazing diversity and community of open pollination crops today.
Tomatoes, peppers, corn, and potatoes were open pollinated crops developed in the Americas; cabbage, kale, and culinary herbs by Europe; melons, yams, sorghum, and okra from Africa; and eggplants, sugarcane, rice, garlic, and many others from Asia.
Instead of letting nature take its own course, farmers and gardeners back in the day took an active role in natural selection itself. They chose the strongest individuals from their stock, and collected seeds from those plants alone.
With those seeds, they then grew an even stronger generation of crops the following season, breeding them to be stronger, more disease resistant, more pest resistant, tastier, more beautiful—the list of traits goes on.
These are the ancestors of all the amazing crop seeds we have today, including cherished heirlooms and old favorites, which can be purchased internationally.
FROM SMALL GARDENS TO INTERNATIONAL MARKETS
The very beginnings of a fledgling international seed industry centered around open pollinators to begin with, almost 300 years ago.
Before all that, farmers got their seeds for upcoming growing seasons by saving seed from their own crops from the previous year. By nature, these seeds were open pollinated—few other methods of seed development were known, and hybridization tended to only happen naturally or by mistake.
To support other farmers and surrounding local communities, small seed exchanges were sometimes established. After a time, some of these exchanges burgeoned into small seed companies to meet local demands.
These first seed companies were established in Europe in the early 18th Century. Taking the very best developed breeds and seed strains, these companies also helped maintain the genetics of some of the world’s most well-known heirloom varieties.
This includes open pollinated varieties that are sold in small packets for home gardens and hobby farms. Yet this also includes the wholesale varieties that are bought internationally for more expansive agricultural operations as well.
Changes in the global economy then shifted later in the 18th Century, especially with the colonization of the Americas. To support the food and agricultural needs of western colonization, these small companies stepped up to be the sources of shipped seeds for food in the New World.
The very best open pollinator varieties from the Eastern hemisphere were brought to the West, and vice versa, with the very best open pollinators finding their way back to the Old World as well.
And thus, the international seed market was born, which made open pollinator seeds developed in small gardens and farms available for cultivation by people and operations of all sizes all around the world—and it still does today.
Up until the present day, the international seed market was carried on the back of open pollinator varieties—as well as heirloom varieties—which we still deem very important to agriculture of all types in modern times.
OPEN POLLINATED SEEDS VS. HEIRLOOM VARIETIES
Open pollinated seeds are considered the most naturally-developed type of seeds you can buy or source. But when one thinks of “natural” or “sustainable” seeds, however, they may tend to think of heirloom seeds instead.
But what is the difference between open pollinated and heirloom seed varieties? There is, actually, very little difference. In fact, ALL heirloom seeds are a type of natural, open pollinated seed. However, not all open pollinated seeds, on the other hand, are heirlooms.
What makes an heirloom different is how long it has been around, whether in a single country or around the world. Heirlooms are very specific seed strains that have been protected from hybridization for a long time, with the required time length often being about 50 years before a specific breed can be considered an “heirloom.”
Heirloom seeds might also have very strong historical, cultural, or traditional significance attached to them as well. They could be highly important to a specific culture, region, country, or even family or religion.
Certain groups, exchanges, or companies worked hard to preserve their genetics naturally, shielding them from hybridization from other crops that could change their traits or be less natural, including hybrids and GMO’s.
Of course, heirlooms are also developed for very specific traits and characteristics: whether it’s appearance, beauty, adaptability, hardiness, or flavor.
Then again, so are open pollinated seed varieties. The only difference: heirloom seeds have a “pedigree” of sorts, and plenty of history, significance, and sometimes cultural or familial importance attached to them, too.
One can say that all heirlooms are open pollinated, but not open pollinators are heirlooms. With that said, every open pollinated seed has the potential to become an heirloom—just so long as its genetics are protected over a certain time period.
OPEN POLLINATED & HEIRLOOM SEEDS IN MODERN TIMES
Though the international seed market is rich with hybrids and genetically-modified seeds to meet global demands, that’s not to say all international companies don’t have a focus on the seed industry’s original innovators: open pollinated seeds.
We here at Westar still honor the traditional and amazing diversity that open pollinated seeds and crops have to offer.
Modern seed breeding techniques have certainly brought us some impressive and successful hybridized or engineered varieties. But we’re still just as inspired by the unbeatable authentic breeds our ancestors—and mother nature—have procured, which are the most time-honored, trusted, and cherished varieties in the world.
We include a wide variety of open pollinated seeds in our catalogue, whether its flowers, vegetables, or grasses.
Though we also have F1 hybrids available, in certain conditions and contexts, we know what farmers know and have always known: that nature simply does it best.
