Do I need to buy organic seeds to plant in my garden? What’s the difference between regular and organic seeds? And what about GMO seeds? Are heirloom seeds better than organic seeds? If these are questions you’ve asked yourself before you buy seeds for the garden, we can help you answer them! It may not be as complicated as you think! 
Do I Need to Buy Organic Seed?
Staring garden plants from seed can be confusing enough without having to decide between organic and regular. Even more so if you’re not quite sure what those labels mean.
Hopefully, the following discussion on these seed labels will help you make your own informed decision about the seeds you purchase.
To begin with, “regular” seeds simply means seeds that have been grown in an environment where they may have been exposed to commercial chemical:
- herbicides – weed killers
- pesticides – bug killers
- fertilizers – meant to feed the soil
They may not have been sprayed will all or any of these items, but the possibility is there. Also, there are some applications of these that aren’t sprayed, but instead put directly into or onto the soil.
These products range from lesser known products to easily recognizable ones like Round-Up (aka a broad-spectrum glyphosate-based herbicide).
What’s the Difference Between Organic Seeds and Regular Seeds?
Like you learn to do with your packaged food, paying attention to a label is important when you go to purchase a plant or seed. Doing research on terms like “GMO” and “Organic” will help you make informed decisions about your plant and seed purchases.
The Organic Label (and GMOs)
The Organic label is one given by the USDA to an item that has passed specific federal standards which are outlined at the USDA’s website (www.usda.gov).
So, as pertains to seeds, this means that organic-labeled seeds have been raised without conventional chemical sprays to control pests and disease, as well as those meant to fertilize the soil.
That does NOT mean that they have not been sprayed at all. There are organic-approved sprays for fertilizers, and those to control bugs and disease.
To learn more about these, please visit the link to OMRI – the Organic Materials Review Institute.
The only way to know if the seed you’d like to purchase has been sprayed and with which products is to ask the seed grower or seed company.
How to GMOs Factor In?
At the time of publication, although it isn’t specifically regulated to my knowledge, the organic label usually means that the item is also non-GMO. That is, NOT a “genetically modified organism.”
Learning to ask good questions, even if they’re hard to answer, is a healthy thing to do when it comes to our food and how it’s produced. Whether or not to buy organic or non-GMO seed is a determination only you can make after doing some research on current science.
Though a bit dated (2011), the GMO Awareness site has an article that outlines information on GMOs and the Organic label and may get you thinking about the topics involved.
The Organic Label on Food
If you’d like to purchase foods with the official organic label in the USA, you can certainly look for that label in your grocery store. It looks like this:
However, to speak frankly and for myself, the USDA is not the most important source of information on how a product is grown.
Instead of having an outside agency tell me the food that arrived from across the country to my grocery store is safe, I’d rather talk to my local growers and simply get details on their growing methods.
On an actual farm, at a farmer’s market, or a grocery store that features local growers, you can ask the producer if they use pesticides and commercial fertilizers. If they do, you can then ask what kind and how often.
A farmer isn’t going to spend money on something he doesn’t believe he needs, so he will have an answer for you! Even if you disagree with his methodology, you will be getting an answer from an informed, in-person source.
Is Organic More Expensive?
Speaking of money, the reason many gardeners don’t purchase exclusively organic-labeled seed is because of cost. Often, the cost difference it simply too high and gardeners must choose between their ethics and their budget. Sometimes the budget wins.
All is not lost, though! Read down a bit further for that discussion.
Please try to remember that organic growers aren’t greedily trying to capitalize on the organic label. The USDA’s organic certification process is extremely rigorous and expensive to go through. Some might argue that is excessively so, especially given that there has been little to no prosecution of violators of the program.
The expense can be so prohibitive that many growers of food, plants, and seeds have opted out of the official process even though they still follow organic methods in their growing. If they do this, they will usually note it on their website.
This is yet another reason to form a personal relationship with your growers. They can explain why they don’t have that official organic label, and what they do instead.
Can You Grow Organic Vegetables from Non-Organic Seeds?
I will say that I’m a lot pickier about pesticide use when buying food than when I’m buying a plant or seed to go in my garden. The reason for this is because a plant can often outgrow its toxic-spray beginnings, just like a person can rise above a difficult childhood.
Plants have a remarkable ability to adapt and thrive. So, yes, you can grow organic vegetables from non-organic seeds if you use organic methods when raising your vegetables from seed.
How to Make the Change
To ensure that the negative effects of non-organic practices perpetrated against the seed you’ve purchase, save seeds from the original stock for at least three years. The negative effects should work themselves out in a few generations.
In other words, like plants, seeds can shed the issues that come with commercial spray applications in their parent plants. After a year in your garden, they will adapt to your methods of bug control and soil conditioning.
That is to say that, if you don’t use commercial sprays for fertilizer or pesticides, your planted seed will learn to live without them. This becomes very important if you save your own seed.
Save only those seeds that come from the healthiest, most vigorous plants each year. By so doing, you can break the toxicity cycle by saving your own seeds that have never been treated with any outside product.
Some seed purists will argue that, genetically, you will still have the negative consequences of non-organic applications in your seed stock. While that will be true at first, you can breed out those negative traits as you save your own seed.
And if you have a persistently “bad seed”, you can cull it from your stock and start from “cleaner” seed.
Organic VS GMO Seeds
As I’ve said, I’m not as concerned about the organic label as I am that my plants and seeds have NOT been genetically modified. However, when you factor in the reality that the majority of 100% organic products are most likely to have the smallest trace of GMOs available on the market, that organic label becomes a lot more appealing to me.
When it comes to buying my vegetable plants, that fact is particularly important because I typically buy heirloom varieties so that I can save the seed myself to plant in the future. If I’m going to all the trouble of growing healthy food, I want to ensure that my seed saving plants are as “clean” and GM-free as they can be.
All within my budget. This is a very important factor for me! I don’t have hundreds of dollars to purchase new seed every year, so I have to make the best decisions I can while staying within my budget.
Again, this is why seed saving every year is also important to me. Not only do the seeds I save end up healthier and more “organic” than other seeds I could buy, but they’re also provided for free in my garden!
Look for the Safe Seed Pledge
To avoid having to worry about the possibility of buying a genetically modified plant or seed, you may choose to do business with companies that have signed The Safe Seed Pledge. Those companies have pledged to not knowingly sell any GM plant or seed. (Incidentally, there are food producing companies that have signed similar pledges.)
There are several places online to find a list of companies that have signed the Safe Seed Pledge, but here are just a few:
- Peaceful Valley Farm Supply
- Horizon Herbs
- Territorial Seed
- Seeds of Change
- Botanical Interests
- Johnny’s Select Seeds
There are several others, but these are a good place to start. You can usually expect to pay a bit more for seed from these companies than from their less-GM-conscious competitors.
Like I said, I attempt to save seed from as many plants as I can so that I don’t need to replace my seed stock every year, keeping my costs down.
What About Seed Companies You Already Love?
If you have a place you already purchase seeds or plants from, it would be worth a phone call or email to discover if they sell non-GM (not genetically modified) products.
A good seed house from which to buy in bulk is E&R Seed. Their prices are great, and they have a huge organic selection. They do sell some GM seed and so I email them to find out which varieties I should stay away from. Or I simply purchase from their organic selections.
It doesn’t have to be all or nothing when you to establish a personal relationship with your seed provider. Take some time and get to know your grower.
Another great seed house that takes time to educate its customers is Peaceful Valley Farm (aka Grow Organic). Be sure to check out their cover crop mixes for the home garden, FYI.
No, They’re Not All Evil
While we’re on this topic, don’t make the mistake of thinking that growers who do use and sell GM seed are all evil, earth-destroying hicks who are only in their trade to make a quick buck. Anyone who knows anything about farmers knows that you’d be hard-pressed to find people who love and cherish the earth more.
And the last thing they are is rich.
I know of a lot of growers who truly feel that GM crops will be how we feed the world and that the science is safe and proven. The fact that I firmly disagree with that position in no way means I don’t love farmers and the work they do. May God bless our growers!
All that to say that I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to develop a relationship with the suppliers from whom you purchase. Get to know them and get a feel for their ethics and how they do business. A label will never tell you as much as a tone of voice or a look in the eye will. Don’t pass up the chance to get to know the farmers that feed you.
Are Heirloom Seeds Better than Organic?
Aha, a very astute question! For me, the answer is yes, in that heirloom seeds are more important to me than organic seeds. Heirloom plants are the only ones from which you can save seed that will produce plants true to their type every time.
Please note that hybrid seeds (basically the opposite of heirloom seeds) are NOT bad! Hybrid seeds are simply a combination of different varieties of the same plant. Just like you are a combination of the genetics of your parents. YOU are a hybrid.
However, when you save a hybrid seed and plant it the next year, you never know what you’re going to end up with! Heirlooms seeds are reliable in that they will produce the plant you expect them to produce.
If you like quality seeds that are hearty and vibrant but still a little wild, you might want to learn about landrace seeds. Cultivating landrace seeds requires some experience with seed saving, but it may just be the seed cultivation of the future.
To learn more about landrace seeds, visit the Experimental Farm Network.
So, Why are Organic Seeds Better?
Organic seeds can be a better choice for you if you value the experience of purchasing and using seeds that have been produced by growers who have gone through the process to certify their operations through the USDA’s organic program.
You may also be able to find seed producers that are NOT certified as organic but who follow the practices of organic growing.
Non-organic seeds are likely to have pesticide and herbicide residue that does not conform to organic standards. Some organic growers try to produce seeds without any chemical intervention at all, but that is at the discretion of the grower.
Ethics May Be Your First Consideration
You may decide to purchase organic seed simply because the practices of organic growers align more fully with your own personal ethics. You may not need any other criteria to make the decision to purchase organic seed. That is a perfectly reasonable reason!
If you have a multitude of factors to consider when making your purchase, I hope this discussion has been of value. Let me know if you have lingering questions. I’ll do my best to steer you in the direction of credible answers.
Seed Education Resources
Grow Russian Mammoth Sunflowers to harvest bird seed from your backyard. Learn to save the seeds easily with this how-to.Seed Saving Resources
Save Russian Mammoth Sunflower Seeds
Seed Saving 101 – An Encyclopedia of Seed Saving
How to Save Bean Seeds to Plant Next Year
Podcast Seed Saving
Storing Seeds for Long-Term Seed Saving
The 10 Best Seed Companies for Heirloom and Non-GMO Seeds
Loved reading your perspective! Thank you!
You bet, thanks for stopping by!
You make a lot great points in this article! There is a lot to think about when selecting seeds for the garden
I know, right?! I hope I made it a little easier – or at least gave us all a place to start when thinking about it.
Thanks for stopping in!
We LOVE Baker Creek and Territorial Seeds. Next time we order, we’ll be trying some other places, as well. I love the selections they all have and the guarantees! <3
It’s a blessing to have so many options these days. Thanks for sharing that!
I’m getting up there in years, but still so much to learn. Even more important now. Thank you
Your spirit is still as lively as ever, I’ll bet!
Baker Creek is where I get almost all my seeds from. I LOVE their site. Thank you for posting this infomration!
They have really great growing information on their site and their seed packets are some of my favorite for ease of use and planting info.
Thanks for stopping by!