[Community_garden] Treated seed question

[Mike McGrath]

Hybrids are FAR from GM (for Genetically Modified) or GE for ("Engineered") seeds.

you 'make' a hybrid by breeding two varieties of the same plant via their pollens; happens in Nature all the time.

GM crops are created in a lab using genes from a fish (the famous "Flav'r Saver" tomato) or by inserting other non-plant material (pesticides mostly) into the actual genetic structure of a plant. Doesn't happen much in Nature.

Nobody 'has' to grow corn Heck--its the lowest value crop you can grow! If the season is too short, use a hoop house to extend it or grow locally appropriate crops--don't turn to toxins.
                                            ---High Horse McGrath

PS: By law any hybrid seed must be so designated, organic or conventional. If it doesn't say F1 or hybrid, its open pollinated.
 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: GivenTrees at aol.com 
  To: MikeMcG at PTD.net ; harvey at cord.edu ; community_garden at list.communitygarden.org 
  Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2007 12:08 PM
  Subject: Re: [Community_garden] Treated seed question


  Weighing in on the corn debate, call me technically challenged but I guess I just hit the "reply" button instead of the "reply to all" .  I was telling 'harvey @cord.edu' that I was very interested in this debate a we live at 7,000 feet in altitude and have a very short growing season.  I agree that soil temperature has everything to do with germination, but we are not pushing that maturation date so we can get to the market sooner, we're pushing just to get a mature crop.  We get frost as early as August, but soils not warm enough until first of June to plant, even treated seeds, (gasp, used in the passed before I knew better) will rot in these conditions.  We have excellent dirt for a mountain area, as we are in an old creek bed, lots of rocks but good nutrition content, no clay.  
  I have many, many questions about organic veggie seeds, as well as non GMO if someone has the time to answer.  
              Aren't all vegetable seeds in some way or form GMO?  That is to say they have through the years been genetically modified, through selection of propagation, long before GMO was an issue.  I am no chemist, nor biologist, just a life long gardener trying to sustain good yields in our very own veggie garden as well as trying desperately to pass on correct, accurate information to our brand new community garden folks.  
      This leads to hybrid questions.  Why don't organic corn seeds have an SH, SH2, or F1 designation on them?  





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