...so is "Beefsteak" and other Plantation Product are heirlooms? NOT Necessarily! It means that 99.99% of American Seeds seed packets contain varieties that are Open Pollinated as opposed to varieties which are not. All heirloom seeds are also open pollinated. But just because a seed is open pollinated does not make it an Heirloom. Quote: The definition of the use of the word heirloom to describe plants is highly debated. One school of thought places an age or date point on the cultivars. For instance, one school says that the seeds must be over 100 years old, others 50 years, and others prefer the date of 1945 which marks the end of World War II and roughly the beginning of widespread hybrid use by growers and seed companies or industrial agriculture. It was in the 1970s that hybrid seeds began to proliferate in the commercial seed trade. Another way of defining heirloom cultivars is to use the definition of the word "heirloom" in its truest sense. Under this interpretation, a true heirloom is a cultivar that has been nurtured, selected, and handed down from one family member to another for many generations. Additionally, there is another category of cultivars that could be classified as "commercial heirlooms," cultivars that were introduced many generations ago and were of such merit that they have been saved, maintained and handed down - even if the seed company has gone out of business or otherwise dropped the line. Additionally, many old commercial releases have actually been family heirlooms that a seed company obtained and introduced. Regardless of a person's specific interpretation, most authorities agree that heirlooms, by definition, must be open-pollinated. They may also be open pollinated varieties that were bred and stabilized using classic breeding practices. End Quote source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heirloom_tomato

If you are talking about tomato seeds (many discussions here about this the search will pull up) cool dry storage is easily good for 5-10 years. Even longer has been posted by many in the past up to and including 25 years. The Seed Saving forum has a good FAQ about how to best store seeds. Personally I have fridge stored seeds (in paper) that are still highly viable past 10 years - used some '94 and '96 dated ones this year. Many professional seed savers prefer paper envelopes over plastic since plastic can trap moisture inside. Dave

Yes, though I wouldn't be surprised if almost everyone who gets a pH meter eventually sticks it in distilled water to see if the pH of their distilled water really is 7. Perhaps motivated by curiosity or suspicions of the labeling of the product. My meter came with small amounts of calibration solutions. The instructions that came with it suggested storing the sensor in tap water, assuming the tap water has enough ions. Though, later I bought larger amounts of calibration solution plus official probe storage solution. Mine came in liquid form. I didn't think to look for packets of dried chemicals which probably cost less and store better. I realize the storage solution is basically salt water but seemed like it needed to be a very specific concentration of salt water. Mainly, I got the pH meter for use with attempting to do plant tissue culture or starting seeds in-vitro. Having the growth media at the right pH is important. At first I tried using pH test strips but had some doubts about using those. The meter has been useful for occasionally testing soil pH, too. However, I suspect that some of the grittier things I've tested that gave me a reading of about 8.1 might actually not be that alkaline and don't have ions to be sensed by the meter.

In my experience, what really turns me off are inflated shipping charges. Often seed prices are low, but the price of "shipping" (which I guess includes "processing", "packing", "filing", "checking", and maybe navel gazing) is through the roof. Seeds are fantastically small and light. Shipping costs should be microscopic. It always astounds me how much seed vendors ask for that.