Just caught this post about food spin. Bigger better, organic, heirloom.....At one time we had a commercial garden that had seed acclimated to our growing conditions. We had the best cannin,g cucumbers and pickles in the area, hands down. Then we had a mouse eat the plastic lid off of the seed container....We tried three types of pickles, and they were terrible. Did not produce well and had too many curls. We used the standard 1627 and another campbell variety. That was the year anthracnos hit everybody hard. Just before ripening, black spots developed and rotted the tops. The future varieties, that contacted the virus, got heavy green cores that were undesirable for canning, and would not ripen properly, making the seed channel watery and often sour tasting.
Heirloom is best, if you can strengthen the line by taking the best fruit for seed, and replanting it for a few generations. It will improve with the survivors. Always move the group to another area, to avoid pest and disease repeats. In a home garden, 3 yr rotation for that spot of ground is about the best. We cannot produce good radish or carrots, because of tubeworm.
Corn is a bad deal for heirloom, as the developed strains can be very productive, very large and sweet or have many more rows per cob. Our ground is not suitable for corn, being too wet, and sour. Conditions that watery fruit like tomato, zuchini, musk melon, and round sugar babe just seem to love. Peppers too thrive with the moisture, cubanell, and banana. You cant grow hot pepers of any kind within 50 feet or so, in a small scale, farther if the patch is larger.
And dont forget the geese, that can weed the garden for you. Chickens will help themselves to any fruit and blossoms the find, not good.
