From a conversation with Mojo over the weekend about heirloom seeds and the ability to buy these things at Wal-mart, or any grocery store.

I'm no expert, but, here are some things you can buy on the cheap and also store for a year, or more.  The seeds can also be harvested and used to regrow the produce.

Feel free to add to the list, but, here are some things that you might be walking past and unknowingly leaving an heirloom plant/produce on the shelf.

Peanuts.  unsalted, raw.  About 2.50 for a package.  A single peanut can produce 25-50 more peanuts.

Dried beans, red, black, brown, speckled, navy, kidney et al.  All those packages of died beans are seeds.  Easy  to sow, and they are legumes.  They don't require great soil since they take their nitrogen from the air.  Same with peanuts.  A nice way to add fertilizer to the soil and fresh pods are nice in early spring.  You can either till them under, or let them dry on the vine to produce next year's seed crop.

Butternut squash.  Stores for a year, or more, if unscratched and kept reasonably protected.  Some of mine in my pantry are from my 2012 garden.  Easy for a single squash to provide enough seed for 50 more plants next year, each plant can produce 10 or more additional squash,

Acorn squash, also good for storage and seeds are all heirloom.  Same characteristics as butternut.  Hubbard is also something to look for as well.  Many of the small, decorative, gourds and squashes will store for the winter and provide seed for the spring.

Sweet potatoes.  The variety most often seen in the store is Beauregard.  Hardy for shipment, but also stores well.  They regrow from the potato in a windowsill (like you experimented with in grade school).  A single potato, stored all winter, will provide 10-15 starts in the spring.  Each of these can produce 5-10lbs of potatoes. The leavse are also edible.

Pumpkin. These are underestimated for durability.  I had pumpkins, grown from seed, last 14 months on my front porch.  Nothing done to protect them from the elements.  I kept others in my kitchen as well.   I don't like growing them.  They take up too much space in the garden for too little fruit.  And, they are kind of a pain in the ass to process in to a canned product.  Melons produce a denser amount of calories for the same garden space.  But, heirloom none the less.

Garlic.  Grab a 5lb bag.  Toss them in the soil.  Good time to plant if you are in the South.  You don't need to harvest them, they will continue to regrow every year if you take just a few simple steps to keep them alive.  

In the spice aisle there are a couple things as well that and handy and easy to store, easy to grow:

Dill seed.  Easy to get a ton of dill from one of those little spice jars.  It really is seed, and it will germinate and produce more seed.  Frost hardy, early source of Vitamin C.

Mustard seed.  Also, a seed.  Easy to grow, frost hardy and drought hardy, bugs don't seem to eat them and they grow so prolifically that you can easily have a year-round crop of greens, harvest the seed, use it in your chow-chow and other recipes.

In the chips section, popcorn.  These are the uncooked bags made for air popping, not the microwave bags.  This is hit or miss.  Some popcorn is hybrid, others are not.  If it is a hybrid it won't give you great ears, but, the hybrid will still produce a small ear that is easily pickled.  But, you have a pretty fair chance of getting a workable crop of popcorn as well.

In the lawn and garden section there is a bag of squirrel corn.  Whole, dried, dent.  I dunno if it is a hybrid, but I am going to buy a bag and see what grows from it.

Indian corn.  I haven't seen it for sale here this year, but, all the indian corns are heirloom.  A hand full of ears will produce bushels and the ears last for several years in the pantry.  Already dried and a simple thing to store, not worries about rot if it kept dry.

I am sure I am overlooking a couple things, but, feel free to add to it.  Maybe those who are sitting on the fence about putting away a few 'heirloom' seeds will pick up a couple of items that they are overlooking at their store right now.

TRG

We've had good luck growing regular old grocery store red potatoes from eyes emerging from slightly-old potatoes in the pantry. I just cut them up into quarters or eighths, with a good piece of growing eye in each chunk, and plant them.

I've also grown sunflowers accidentally from the big 25-lb bags of black oil-seed sunflowers sold for bird seed. We didn't grow these to maturity, so I can't guarantee they are not hybrids.

Tag for information.

Good to know, thanks.

Just FYI, virtually any seed found at wallmart may be open pollinated, but not heirloom.  Heirloom means cultivars essentially abandoned by modern agriculture.

Open Pollinated means the seed breeds true, Most of the offspring will resemble the original plant.  Plenty of modern food crops are open pollinated, and farmers need some economic incentive to plant hybrids, at least for non truck crops.

Hybrids aren't even economically an option for some crops.  

Already beat me, but yeah....I doubt those at walmart are heirloom.

I grew both from the seeds I purchased.  I did not harvest the seed (dill and mustard) from the wal-mart purchases.  

Calling them heirloom is probably premature.  I should have clarified on those two.

I'll know more this spring if I see them re-sprout.

TRG

Not specifically Walmart, there is a YouTube video regarding heirloom tomatoes at Kroger:

Heirloom at Kroger

Heirloom and Organic are two marketing terms that are often misused. I prefer OP (open pollinated).

TRG, it's really all semantics.

All heirlooms are open-pollinated, meaning you can save your seeds and the resulting offspring will grow true to type. No heirlooms are hybrids.

Not all open-pollinated varieties are heirlooms. No OP varieties are hybrids. All OPs will grow true to type if you save your seeds.

'Heirloom' typically denotes some historical record of use. Most heirlooms have some sort of narrative behind them: "so-and-so developed this variety from the Lower Elbownian jumping radish in 1857 in Nantucket and the variety became popular among upside-down centrifugal fungal bunnies for its exfoliating properties."

There are even arguments out there regarding how old a variety has to be in order to qualify as an heirloom.

FWIW, there are plenty of less-desirable heirlooms out there due to quality, productivity, time to harvest, storage quality, etc. As a prepper, all I really care about is whether things are open-pollinated or not.

Interesting post...  But I wouldn't count on all big box store items being open pollinated...  Sure they might grow once, but save the seeds from your crop and try them again just to make sure...

Watermelon and cantaloupes have sometimes given me trouble with re-growing from store-bought fruit.

TRG

Additionally....regarding Walmart seeds.

When you go into the garden section (where they sell the Christmas stuff) to buy the white LED's for $3.00 AFTER Christmas is over.....

Look around for the SEED display from the summer.  You can get packs that were $1.29 for $0.25 to $0.50

Last year, I picked up 80-ft. of LED's and 50 packs of seeds for $30.

It's hit or miss on old seed. I bought what I thought was quality tomato seed from a retail garden center. It wasn't expired, but it was the previous year's seed. I seeded them out into a 72 cell tray and placed them in one of our commercial greenhouses. I only had 3 plants pop and grow.

A few weeks later I picked up another package from a retailer, reseeded and germ was nearly 100%.

But it goes both ways, we seeded 500 big muhly seeds that were almost 1 year old, 4 came up. I also had some open packages of marigolds that were 4+ years old, stored in the refrigerator in Tupperware that germinated almost 100%. Storage conditions as well as the particular habits of that particular species/variety play a role.

Plant type figures into storage life, too::



Info gotten from Johnny's Selected Seeds' FAQ, which has a lot of good info on seed saving. The FAQ is located here.

Does that go for things like beans as well?

No.  Dried beans are going to produce the same crop.  I tired it with some older red beans that had sat so long in my pantry that moths/weevils hit them.  They still germinated, produced a crop and the seeds were replanted and produced a second crop.

Grab some bags off the shelf and you are good to go.  

Grab several varieties.  I would not recommend the '7 bean soup' mix.  I kind of like all my beans to be on the same cycle of producing.  Peas here.  Speckled beans here.  Red beans over there, etc.

TRG

That's probably good info in general, but just keep in mind like my one year old tomato seeds, it's not a guarantee.

I think I spent about $17,000 on commercial seed last year *shudder* from commercial suppliers with their own labs and testing facilities. Every time I get a bill, I realize I just dropped a shitload of money on nothing but hopes and dreams with no guarantee of anything.

Each commercial package is marked with lot numbers and germination rates. We usually do a when we look at some of these numbers. We had one particular species labeled with an 86% germination rate, but in actual commercial use, it's between 30 and 40%. We'll run our own tests under different variables to try and improve these numbers, but I'm starting to think it has more to do with the age difference from when they run their lab test to when we start commercial production. That time lapse probably runs anywhere from 3 to 12 months and I think it makes a difference.

Some stuff it doesn't matter at all. You could pack it in your ass crack for 18 months and it would germinate, other seeds not so much.

Have you ever tried horseradish or ginger by planting the root? I plan to do this, but wondered if anyone had experience with it. I'll probably put them in planters to limit spread and enable moving as needed.

sgt_seti

I've got tomatoes originally purchased as plants at Lowes that will be on their 4th season when they grow this year. That and cilantro, there was so much growing from the year before last that i had to take much of it out and give it away. They both grow literally like weeds.





 

Yes to horseradish- never plant it in the garden, it spreads fast.  I'd plant it on the edge of a field or where grass meet woods.  Hell, go plant it in a vaceent lot, how much do you want anyway.

You can make your own mayo with eggs, oil and lemon juce (+paprika), add horseradish to make a great sauce.

I wandered through the seed section at Wal-Mart.

Prices seems to have gone from .99 to 2.99 for seeds this year.

TRG

Celery seed?  Whole grain rice?

That's weird. I'm paying $1.29-1.59/packet here at Lowes.

It's worth pointing out that a $1 packet of seeds can be a worse deal than a $3 packet depending on the mass of seed included. For example, 50mg of basil seed vs. 300mg. Three-fold difference in price, six-fold difference in quantity of seed.

Mass should be printed on the packet, though it may be tiny print.

I gotta nose around and see if there are cheaper seeds in that garden section.

Even 1.29 and 1.59 represents 30-60% increases in seed costs.

TRG

I haven't tried either one.  I suspect 'yes' on celery, and 'no' on rice.

TRG

Probably not heirloom, but we had rats that we fed "small animal food" or something like that. When I dumped their cages, corn and peanuts started to grow. Not sure what else was in there, or how well they would grow.

I have been saving apple seeds, I realize there is not much chance of getting a good tree, but I figure I will plant them in random places where there will be no loss if nothing comes of it.

Good stuff. Thanks for posting.

Have you got a local Tractor Supply or similar? TSC in past years has had $0.25/packet generic garden seeds. I don't remember how the seed content compared to more expensive packets.

The best deals are probably going to be online sources that will sell you seed in larger quantities for a big garden. I've used Johnny's Selected Seeds and Seed Saver's Exchange. I've been happy with both.

Augason Farms Emergency Food Non-Hybrid Vegetables Garden Seeds, 16 oz
At WalMart.com



PITA45

"green beans, carrots, corn, cucumbers, cantaloupes, onions, peas, bell peppers, romaine lettuce, spinach, squash, tomatoes and zucchini."

Yeah...

Supposed to produce 2300lbs of vegetables?  

I'd like to see them back that up.

TRG

tag

One more, only got because it was a manager special thing, but in the vitamin/ health area they sell chia seeds, don't know if it would be better to just eat the seeds, but you can sprout them also.

That surprises me.  We almost always plant 1-yr old seed; with us it's kind of a rotation thing so that we always have at least one season's worth of seed on hand.  Seeds we buy this spring won't be planted until next year, and this spring's planting will be from seed bought last year.  We've never had any germination problems at all with any of it, and we have close to an acre planted in mostly vegetables (archived garden thread if you're interested)... possibly more those years that we plant a wheat patch or want a particularly big corn harvest (home-canned supply running low, for instance).

No special steps taken for storage.  For the most part they're in the original envelopes, stored in a wood box (not airtight) in a back room of the house.  One thing we DO do is to buy quality seed... almost everything comes from Baker Creek.  I've been buying from them for probably 10 years, and have yet to find a single thing to complain about.

Since I brought up garden threads, TRG's (OP) garden thread is pretty awesome.

I need to update.  Just planted peas this season that I grew, harvested, dried and stored last spring.

TRG

The little packs they sell wouldn't do me much good, I plant a big garden. When I buy seeds I buy pounds not ounces..

cool story, we appreciate you sharing



 

Not a story but I am glad you liked it.

... where's the best place to buy heirloom seeds just to experiment with a small backyard garden?

I think Corporal_Chaos might be your best source.  I think y'all are both in the same climate zone.

TRG

Pics???

Best thing to do is get some known seeds and go to it. There is no substitute for experience combined with sound advice from experienced people.

I prefer dealing with Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. There are other exchanges around but I have a proven track record with these folks.

Some personal favorites either because of production, taste or more usually both:

Purple pod green beans. Can't say enough good about these. Everyone I've turned on to them has been very pleased.

Brandywine tomatoes. Again, production and flavor are some of the best. Mule Team and Mortgage Lifter are also very good.

Corno di Toro sweet pepper. Not as full as a bell, but better flavor, more reliable production, more peppers get ripe (red) easier than bells and the flesh is thick and sweet.

Yellow crookneck and black beauty zukes are always present. Plant in stages if you have vine borers like I do.

Evergreen sweet corn. As good or better than silverqueen and less picky/delicate.

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