February 4, 2015

In my own vegetable beds I use no chemical heroics, and yet I had been using some conventionally produced seed that is often coddled and adapted to a life of “high inputs” that it won’t get from me or from an increasing number of other chemical-averse home gardeners.  
Margaret Roach in Look Carefully at Those Seeds (New York Times)

Why buy organic seeds? Here’s what the folks at High Mowing Organic Seeds say:

• Because seed crops are heavy users of synthetic agricultural chemicals. (They are in the ground longer and have less chemical restrictions than food crops).
  
• Because seed produced organically will yield plants that are more adapted to, and more likely to thrive under, organic growing conditions.

• Because increased demand will lead to an increase in variety selection and development, and increased availability of more organic seed!

To find organic seeds, use this Seed Finder from Mother Earth News.Type in “organic” before the seed you’re looking for, e.g., “organic nantes carrots.” Their data base includes over 500 mail order seed companies. You’ll have lots of choices.