Yardsmart: Hybrid vs. Heirloom

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Believe it or not, creating a first vegetable garden is like furnishing your house. For interiors you may go to showrooms filled with a vast array of brands, styles and sizes made by contemporary manufacturers. Or perhaps you spend your time perusing antique and second hand stores for vintage finds. Those vintage pieces may offer you more character, unique qualities and a level of craftsmanship hard to find these days.
So it is with vegetable seedlings, and when faced with dozens of different tomatoes, for example, the choice may seem overwhelming. At the garden center you'll find a vast array of hybrids that have been bred for many different qualities. Originally they were created to give farmers a break from the threats that plagued their crops. A hybrid tailored to their needs and limitations could better feed their families and produce more to sell. But what does that hybrid mean to you?
Some hybrids are known for their increased disease resistance. This is particularly important with tomatoes, which suffer from viruses that can wipe out a whole crop in a matter of weeks. The hybrid that better resists the virus can be cultivated with little risk. For those who live in humid regions such as the Deep South selecting a disease resistant variety is doubly important because plant diseases are serious problem.
A hybrid can produce a larger fruit. Whether it's a bigger bell pepper or a mammoth pumpkin, the desire to produce larger fruits with more versatility has long been the breeder's goal. Fruit size also plays into how you use them in the kitchen, but beware of sacrificing flavor. To breed huge fruits, the trade off is sometimes lower sugar content or less flavor overall.
A hybrid can offer new and exciting colors, or it may stabilize a more desirable color. Chocolate colored peppers and yellow tomatoes, purple green beans and pink eggplant are all fun to grow, offering you lots of visual options in the kitchen. It's also more fun for kids to see vegetables that look different than the standardized identical store bought varieties.
While these are just a few of the benefits of hybrids, antiques have their values too. After all, many of them were cultivated long before the advent of modern breeding, and the fact that they are still around is a testament to their appeal.
Antique vegetables are known in the garden center as heirloom varieties. These are typically grown from seed by small specialty growers, so they tend to be more prevalent at independent garden centers. These are plants that come from farming communities on nearly every continent, brought with immigrants to the American melting pot. They retain a most remarkable gene pool that has not been limited by modern breeding. In years of weird weather they may be the only plants to produce well.
Beginning veggie gardeners should know the difference between these two groups. This is the fundamental division that helps you make informed choices on what to grow.
As a proponent of diversity, my home is a combination of antique and new furniture and subsequently my garden blends modern hybrids with heirlooms. Creating a balance of both is my insurance policy. If Mother Nature doesn't cooperate fully that season, I'll always have plenty to eat. The first year of gardening is a period of great learning, and you'll be able to study your plants and their fruits in detail. Save the stick labels to recall what did well so you can try it again next year, eliminating the failures.
Since most vegetables are annual crops grown over the summer, there's no risk when you try new and unusual varieties. The diversity is so much more inspiring in the kitchen too. Just remember to grow one or two plants of each variety instead of a whole lot of the same, so you can start the lifelong process of elimination.

(Maureen Gilmer is a horticulturist and blogger at www.MoPlants.com/blog.
YARDSMART Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service