This is a really helpful thread. I’m very new to landrace gardening, but seed starting quickly became one of my biggest questions. Based on the overall landrace philosophy, I tend to agree with those of you advocating for native soil. I’ll be trying a few different things next spring and see how it goes.
Reading this thread I had the hypothesis that maybe seeds produced by plants that were direct seeded outdoors will do better than random seeds when planted indoors in native soil.
For example, this year I direct seeded about 80-100 tomato seeds this year and only 20 plants germinated, with only 4-5 that might produce seeds.
More generally, I see potential in having hybrid production systems, one side for adapted seed productions, and one side for crop production. Seeds produced under selective pressure (low fertility, shorter growing seasons, non standard starting soil, unweeded beds,…) could allow us to relax a bit more on our inputs when we are focusing on producing lots of food.