As far as using the same seeds - unless they have been treated in some way - usually they are a strange unnatural color, such as the pink corn seeds you can see in bins at the local hardware store - it doesn't really matter. If you are growing for market, and are a certified grower, then ALL your inputs need to be certified, including seeds, fertilizer, etc. If you are growing for yourelf, that's another story. While buying organic seeds is better in that the cultural practices will probably be similar to yours, so the plants/veggies will probably produce well, and in that you are supporting an organic grower - it is more HOW you then grow the plants that decides if you have an organic garden, rather than if you start with organic seeds. Hybridization, in and of itself, is neither organic nor non-organic. Genetic engineering, on the other hand......

Most of the smaller seed companies will have some organic seeds. Johnny's, Cooks, Shepherds, etc., etc., all have some or all of their seeds available as either organic or conventional. The latter are usually less expensive.

Get one of the Rodale books, which will give you basic information. You can also read Organic Magazine, and any books by Elliot Coleman and Shepherd Ogden, to name a few sources. Once you have more basic knowledge, then the people here can help with specific questions. I'm afraid few of the people have time to write a book for you, so it's better if you read up what you can and then come back.

what type of seeds you use isnt that important and its really up to you. any plants can be grown organically whether they are hybrids or open pollenated, but when you grow open pollenated plants you can then save your own seeds for future use instead of buying more seeds each time. you can buy organic seeds which are from plants that have been grown organically depending on how important that is to you.

ha! we posted at the same time dibbit :)

thank you for the answers but what would be better to grow organically, would it be better to get organic seeds and plant those or just get hybrids, and what would be the difference, would it be the chemicals used in the seeds? and if i used a seed that is a hybrid and grew it organically would it later turn organic?

As we said above, it doesn't REALLY matter, except that buying organic seeds supports the organic seed producer, and encourages him/her to continue. Most seeds have NO chemicals on them - some seeds for conventional growers, most notably corn, peas and beans, are treated with fungicides, etc., to let them better sprout, and grow in cold soil, etc. These seeds are NOT organic, because organic means NOT using chemical fugicides, etc. If you plant a seed which hasn't been treated, grow it using organic methods, and harvest the crop, then that crop IS organic, whether or not the seed was organic.

Hybrid just means that the parents of that seed were not the same/identical, and that the offspring from seeds produced by a plant from that seed won't be the same/identical either. People have been breeding plants together to get the benefits of hybridization for centuries, before the word was coined. It can take several generations of growing and selection before you get a seed that will produce plants that produce seeds that will reproduce that plant, but that's how varieties were created, for regional vigor, for flavor, for hardiness, for color, for..., for..... If a plant is not a hybrid, it just means that the offspring of that plant will be the same as that plant. It doesn't necessarily mean that that plant is better or worse, just that it IS. Open-pollinated plants are non-hybrid by definition - they will produce the same plant from the seedsd that they produce etc., etc. If you are still confused, let us know and we can try to explain it better.

Hybrid just means that they took the pollen of one plant, and used it to cross with another plant. That doesn't involve chemicals, genetic engineering, or anything like that. In fact- grow a few varieties together and the seeds produced will have some number that are hybrids (maybe not ones that you want...).

The reason to worry about hybrids is if you want to collect seeds from the plant. There's no way of saying what they will turn out like for the home grower. If not collecting seeds, then don't worry if it's a hybrid or not that you want to grow.