Isolation techniques

I walked into a nursery a few blocks from my home and talked to the lady who orders the seeds. She said that heirloom plants were a fad and would fade out in a few years.

I said "Not for me."

There are a number of reasons that people buy heirloom seeds and plants. They are generally a bit more expensive, but they are GMO free (so far), have more variety, and you can save seeds with the assurance that you'll get the same thing next year.

Or...not quite.

If you plant two heirloom varieties of squash close together you might get a hybrid the next year. A pumpsquash maybe, or a waterlope. :) Just kidding.

While tomatoes and peppers, peas and beans, are generally not pollinated by insects (they're self-fertile and most blossoms pollinate themselves) there is still a possibility of a mixture.

There are a number of ways to make sure you get the same variety, mostly determined by the way the particular plant is pollinated.

The simplest is distance. Do not plant wheat, for example, within half a mile of any other strain of wheat. They will mix. Corn is also wind pollinated but the pollen is heavier--plant different varieties of corn about fifty feet apart.

The second option, which relies on the experience of the gardener, is to plant different varieties at different times. This might be as simple as planting each variety in an alternate year, or it might mean planting them a month or two apart. It depends on how long the flowering season is for each variety and how long it takes the seeds to mature. This won't work for some types of plants.

The third, and the one I prefer for most things, is isolation. From a seed bag (scraps of gauze with yarn woven around the outside to make a drawstring bag) to a tent over an entire plant, isolation makes sure that only you can get to the blossoms to pollinate them. Done with a paintbrush, a q-tip, or some other similar item, isolation is the only way to completely verify that you're getting the pollination you want.

It's a learning curve. If you accidentally end up with something unintended, try again next year. That's part of why I always plant only a small portion of the seeds in any one year. I always have something left over from the last batch so I can start over if necessary.

Insect control

Several years ago I made this stuff--I figured, insects don't like garlic, they don't like onions, they don't like hot peppers and they don't like vinegar.

So I mixed the four, using onion seeds instead of onions. The second batch I left out the garlic and it worked just as well. The ingredients are better fresh, but dried works.

Let it all sit in the vinegar for a couple days to as long as necessary--no bacteria or fungus is going to be caught dead in this stuff! Then strain it and pour the juice into a spray bottle. Or just pour off the juice and cover the pulp with more vinegar for the next batch.

Mix it with water at 5:1 or more. For a really bad infestation you may need to use it straight, but only if the problem has gotten to that point before you start. Aphids, beetles, spiders, whatever. It seems to work on everything. I never tried it on spider mites, because they're mostly in the house and there are people in the house who don't like hot peppers. :)

Spray it every day until the problem is gone, but watch the plants. Some plants are really sensitive to acids. It's totally biodegradable and you don't need to worry if your kids drink it (although they might end up immitating a fish to get rid of the taste).

Oh, and try to use white vinegar. My understanding is that other vinegars have a lower acid content, not to mention that they're usually made from fruit of some kind. I use a dilution of water and plain white vinegar (10:1) to get rid of fruit flies and gnats on my houseplants.

Note: I've seen suggestions that you should use some dishsoap in your mix, but unless it's biodegradable it might damage the plants. If you use dishsoap, don't get it on the roots and keep a careful eye on the more tender plants.