Why should you grow "heirloom seeds"
and save seed?

The words "heirloom" and "heritage" are commonly used in the seed industry as descriptive terms to market seed varieties.  They are very loosely used.  They stimulate emotions and memories and are intended to make you feel nostalgic and therefore want to spend money.

It is important to understand how words are used.  Some companies use an arbitrary variety age as a definition for an heirloom seed.  To us, that is a bit too clinical or impersonal.  These plants are not here by chance.  They are not a design of nature but the product of generations of nurturing.

Webster's II New Riverside Dictionary defines an heirloom as, "A valued family possession handed on from generation to generation."  We could not have said it any better.  That personal commitment and effort is what it takes to make a seed variety an heirloom.

By their very nature, an heirloom variety is not an unstable hybrid, it is open-pollinated, and should, with a little care, breed true to type from year to year.   Saving seeds from most modern hybrids, on the other hand, results in seeds that range from sterile (see Terminator gene article), to ones that have unpredictable gene expression (F1 hybrids).

As our society has become addicted to produce that is inexpensive and uniform in appearance, fewer and fewer varieties of edible plants are eaten by people today. We are eating only a few kinds of  vegetables, fruits and cereal grains.

Why buy Victory Seeds™ or from other small providers of non-hybridized seed?

Supporting the Victory Seed Company and other small producers of open-pollinated seed will help to insure the diversity of seed stock sold on the open market.

Although a lot of the "Big Boys" in the seed industry seem to jump on the "heirloom" bandwagon when they deem it in fashion, they are also the ones who determined that the older varieties are unprofitable and stopped carrying them.  The Victory Seed Company will be here through all cycles of trend or fad.

We appreciate our loyal customers, and are continually adding varieties to our growing list of seeds.  We also realize that we are not offering every variety that you are looking for.  Please drop us an email and let us know if you are having difficulty locating a particular plant seed.  We will try and locate it for you or refer you elsewhere.

Seed Legislation

Keep aware of legislation that erodes our rights to produce and save seed for sale or commercial propagation.  These rights can be removed either actively through the passing of laws, patents or via genetic engineering.

Plants can be patented which assumes that the patentee "invented" the plant or was involved in the development of that species.  Most plants have their origins in natural environments where the propagator happened to find them. These plants have been cultivated by hundreds of thousands of people over the centuries. No single person should have the right to "own" patents to such collective work. Patents of this nature restrict the world's variety of available plant seeds and potentially the world's food supply.

Restrictive practices are happening all over the world.  Large multinational companies with great political clout are involved in actions that rarely gets any mainstream press attention.

Keep informed!  Grow and save seeds!  Educate those in you sphere of influence!  Support companies and organizations working to keep open-pollinated and heirloom seeds available.