Why Heirloom Seeds Are The Best: The Soil Heath Edition
, by Ellen Rignell, 3 min reading time
There are a hundred reasons I’m proud to carry the identity ‘gardener’ and one of them is that gardeners care about soil. To us, it’s not dirt or mud, it’s soil: a sweet-smelling, life-giving, impossibly complex substance. Something we care deeply about.
Did you know? There are more organisms in a teaspoon of soil than there are people walking this Earth.
A mind-blowing fact, but to keep your soil lively, it needs to be fed. Most gardeners think of that as adding compost (which is great), but most people don’t know that the plants you grow in your soil also have a massive impact on the life it can support.
When I was at university I was lucky enough to be involved in a groundbreaking piece of research looking at the connection between soil mycorrhizal fungi and different varieties of wheat. I didn’t know it at the time, but this research would go on to inspire my entire career.
Mycorrhizal fungi are amazing creatures. They form symbiotic relationships with plants, connecting to plant roots and giving the plant hard-to-access nutrients. In exchange the plant gives the fungus carbohydrates. The plant benefits and the fungus benefits. In fact, the whole soil community benefits because mycorrhizal fungi are soil ecosystem engineers - they actively create an environment where other soil microbes thrive.
The research I worked on (see MycoRhizaSoil project, J. Leake) showed that heritage wheats form more complex and robust relationships with mycorrhizal fungi compared to modern cultivars. Some of the modern varieties tested have become totally reliant on synthetic fertilisers because they have ‘forgotten’ how to recruit microbial partners such as mycorrhizal fungi. They can no longer contribute to creating healthy soils.
Heritage varieties are more robust, forming strong relationships with mycorrhizal fungi enabling them to get everything they need from the soil. No inputs necessary. At the same, the plant feeds the mycorrhizal fungi which grows and builds a welcoming environment for lots of other kinds of soil life.
What this tells me is that the seed matters. The seeds and plants you choose to grow can alter the life, structure and health of your soil, for better or worse. It’s my mission to offer robust heirloom seeds to help build soil health.
My catalogue doesn’t contain any varieties of wheat (yet!) but there’s research to suggest that the same is true in the vegetable and cut flower world. Heritage tomato varieties have more complex associations with the soil than modern hybrids (link here). Similarly, heirloom lettuce varieties form robust connections to mycorrhizal fungi which make the plants richer in antioxidants and polyphenols, so they’re more nutritious (link here). Research into cut flower production in this area is pretty new but so far shows that mycorrhizal relationships improve stem strength and vase life (link here).
This is why I do what I do. I want to offer heritage seeds which help build living soils. I want people to grow nutritious, beautiful produce while also nurturing a rich garden ecosystem. I hope this inspires you to grow heritage varieties too.
