I found that out accidentally, myself. My friend buys all organic produce from a local California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF), and she had given me some tomatoes, zucchini and squash. One night I stir fried it up and chucked the seeds and "trash" into my garden to compost it. Now, three months later, I have 3 tomato plants coming in and a squash or zucchini plant. I am a total convert!! In fact I have some Green onion shoots growing in a pot on my window sill from her, too! All organic and I love it.
If I had more money I'd buy all organic too, but it is expensive and out of our budget at this time.

~ Amanda

I think you are confusing several things here. You need to save seeds from open pollinated varieties because they will produce fruit like their parent plant. All heirloom plants are open pollinated, but not all open pollinated plants are heirloom. I think they consider it an heirloom if it has been known to be in existence for 50 years or more in it's stable form.

So the test for planting is open pollinated vs hybrid. Seed from an open pollinated plant will produce like the parent, and a seed from a hybrid plant will not. It will probably produce a fruit, but it will not be like the parent fruit that you took the seed from.

Organic is a growing method and can be either hybrid or open pollinated.

I think you are confusing several things here.

Agree. It isn't that simple and has nothing to do with it being organic or not. Organic is simply a gardening method and has no effect on the seeds themselves nor is it restricted to only heirlooms. Organic growers grow hybrids too.

You do NOT need heirloom tomatoes to save the seed. They only need to be open-pollinated (non-hybrid) varieties to breed true and then only if they weren't cross-pollinated. And even some hybrids will produce good fruit from their seeds, it just won't be the same.

Then there is the seed maturity aspect. The fruit must be mature in order for the seeds from that fruit to be mature enough to germinate. Most store-bought fruits and vegetables are 1) hybrids, and 2) harvested before they are mature to allow for shipping. So the germination rates from saved store-bought food seeds is quite low. It often results in lots of work and wasted time for little return.

Dave