How important is organic?

Rhoen1

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I'm planning to get 3 Hermanns tortoises, and like every site I go on tells me to feed them organic plants, but I can't find many organic seeds. If I buy non GMO seeds, and grow them in organic coconut, will that be as good? Or is it very important I find organic? Thanks :)
 

wellington

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Not that important. If don't use organic greens, just rinse well. Besides, organic, doesn't always mean what we think it does. Too many news programs has proven that.
 
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Yvonne G

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I don't shop organic. It's not important at all to me.
 
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ascott

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I'm planning to get 3 Hermanns tortoises, and like every site I go on tells me to feed them organic plants, but I can't find many organic seeds. If I buy non GMO seeds, and grow them in organic coconut, will that be as good? Or is it very important I find organic? Thanks :)


I only buy organic for the torts as well as for the humans in the house :)..this is an individual choice..I personally try at every corner to avoid the poison sprayed and fed to the food we eat...of course we can not avoid it always...but the torts here get organic.
 

Tom

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If its safe for human consumption, its safe for my tortoises.
 

thehowards

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Since there isn't a completed study on Gmo's and and the sprays we use on how it effects us years later down the road (we are the test subjects) I would say organic is important. Especially since the torts will be eating more and for a long life than us. I wouldn't say eating something that a insect explodes from eating is safe for anyone or thing. I worked in the spray business and they would always lie about how "safe" there product is to sell more. One more thing the people that work in those fields that produce all this conventional food won't even eat it and bring in there own organic produce for there lunch. I'd say it's not really safe for anyone or thing.

Edit - by the way you can't wash it off it grows into the plant.
 

TerrapinStation

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I think the "Organic" issue is extremely debatable for several reasons:
-Just because a farm is NOW organic does not mean it was ALWAYS organic. There is always the possibility of soil/ground contaminants.
-Any new farm that claims to be organic raises the question as to what was on that land before it was a farm.
-Are the organic fertilizers (compost/food scraps/manure etc) from organic sources?

I have gotten in to a few friendly debates in Detroit's eastern market with the Urban Farmers who claim to have Organic produce.... grown on industrial wasteland..... In a city with so much manufacturing and human history, it is hard to imagine any land that has not been contaminated. One farm was bragging about the artifacts they dug up.... old car parts, tools, cans, junk.... Wouldn't that affect the ground quality?

Sorry for the tangent, just a topic I find interesting.
 

wellington

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I think the "Organic" issue is extremely debatable for several reasons:
-Just because a farm is NOW organic does not mean it was ALWAYS organic. There is always the possibility of soil/ground contaminants.
-Any new farm that claims to be organic raises the question as to what was on that land before it was a farm.
-Are the organic fertilizers (compost/food scraps/manure etc) from organic sources?

I have gotten in to a few friendly debates in Detroit's eastern market with the Urban Farmers who claim to have Organic produce.... grown on industrial wasteland..... In a city with so much manufacturing and human history, it is hard to imagine any land that has not been contaminated. One farm was bragging about the artifacts they dug up.... old car parts, tools, cans, junk.... Wouldn't that affect the ground quality?

Sorry for the tangent, just a topic I find interesting.
I agree, the reason for my first post. I bough a bag of organic soil once. It had lots of plastic in it. That's really organic and what I want in my torts pen. Besides, isn't almost anything we eat bad for us now days? Don't eat this, couple years later, oh you can eat it, it's not bad for us after all.
I don't eat organic, neither do my animals
 

Prairie Mom

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I'm planning to get 3 Hermanns tortoises, and like every site I go on tells me to feed them organic plants, but I can't find many organic seeds. If I buy non GMO seeds, and grow them in organic coconut, will that be as good? Or is it very important I find organic? Thanks :)
Lots of good opinions have been posted, but I want to add by specifically talking about seeds...
I never spend money on SEEDS labeled "organic." They are only labeled that way to trick uninformed people into spending more money on them. Here are a couple articles that explain the difference between heirloom, gmo, and Hybrids (F1)etc...

This one addresses common myths about GMO seeds... http://blogs.extension.org/mastergardener/2013/03/21/saving-seeds-harvesting-the-future/

This one breaks down nicely the different types of seeds you can buy...http://blog.seedsavers.org/blog/open-pollinated-heirloom-and-hybrid-seeds

I garden with heirloom, open pollinated hybrids, and F1 hybrids that you can't save seeds from. There are some garden forums where people are whacko in regards to the type of seed you use. Hybrids are not the big evil that so many people make them to be. I'm not talking about crazy genetically modified processed foods with chemicals added to make your brain crave them; I'm talking about seeds. There are some F1 hybrids that I love dearly which have been bred over years to be more suitable to my climate and short growing season. My climate does best with hybrid corn that grows smaller stalks and ripens faster. I also LOVE the different varieties of cauliflower and carrots. My family would not have as much fresh produce if it were not for quicker ripening hybrids.

There are also some plants that I only buy heirloom or open pollinated hybrid seeds of and they make cheap tortoise food. I have not bought squash and pumpkin seeds for YEARS. I spent a tiny bit more on one seed packet to buy seeds that grow plants that I can save the seeds from every year.
Here is an example of heirloom zucchini. I let one vegetable grow large so it can be full of mature seeds. The seeds from this single plant will be enough to provide LOTS of greens inside this winter and the zucchini plants I will grow in my garden next summer.
zucchini for seeds.jpg

If you plan on seed saving pay attention to whether it is heirloom and open pollinated. If you're not going to be saving seeds, just get whatever is CHEAPEST:)
 
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