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<p><strong>"OP Variety" vs. "Hybrid Variety" vs. "Openly Pollinated"</strong></p>
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<p>1. "<strong>OP variety"</strong></p>
<p>An OP variety is genetically stable enough that it "comes true" to it's parents if it pollinates itself. That stability was achieved by inbreeding a strain for several generations while selecting for the desirable traits, and "rouging out" any plant that lacks the desired traits.</p>
<p>All heirlooms are OP varieties. </p>
<p>Once it is stabilized, you you can maintain and conserve an OP variety by allowing it to pollinate itself via wind and insects - as long as other varieties of the same species are not close enough to cross-pollinate. </p>
<p>Even if "isolation distances" are not observed, you can multiply OP seeds "mostly pure" by surrounding a patch of that variety with plants of different species. It also helps to mostly save seed from plants in the center of the patch. </p>
<p>A bee CAN travel ⅓ of a mile between visits to its hive. But it's very rare that a bee will visit a plant 1,500 feet from your yard, and then fly directly to YOUR plant and cross pollinate it. So unless you need 99% genetic purity, avoiding the same species in the same bed, and then not worrying about cross-pollination works quite well. Next year, just pluck any plant that does pop up lacking the desirable traits (before it can pollinate its neighbors). </p>
<p> 2. <strong>Hybrid Variety</strong></p>
<p>The opposite of an OP variety is an F1 hybrid variety. Those require human intervention to produce OR maintain. Usually there are two or more inbred "parent" varieties that were developed and maintained the same way any OP variety is created and maintained. </p>
<p>The named F1 cultivar is produced by carefully preventing the seed parent from pollinating herself, while someone transfers pollen from the male parent. It's complex and artificial, like plucking anthers and stamens, bagging seed blooms, collecting pollen, and manually pollinating a stigma with a small brush or Q-Tip. </p>
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<p>3. <strong>"Openly Pollinated"</strong> </p>
<p>The opposite of complex and artificial pollination through human intervention is allowing plants to pollinate themselves and each other via wind and insects. If you allow F1 hybrids to do that to themselves, you get a blurry mix of 'blah' plants without the special traits the F1 cultivar was appreciated for.</p>
<p>If you let an OP strain do that to itself, you propagate the desirable OP strain and conserve all its desirable and familiar traits.</p>
<p>Say you let an OP variety pollinate itself openly, and label the seed pkt "OP". You haven't said whether you prevented, allowed, or encouraged cross-pollination with other varieties. If the recipient thinks you meant " here's seed from that OP variety we like so much", he might assume you intended it to be less than 20% cross-pollinated. After all, that IS how OP strains are propagated: openly pollinated BUT with at least some attention paid to isolation.</p>
<p>But if the recipient thinks you meant "here is seed that was freely and openly pollinated by wind and bees", he might think that you're hinting that it was pollinated by lots of who-knows-what, and hence is likely to grow out an interesting mix of surprising, varied and unique colors and shapes. He might hope the sender meant "openly pollinated AND heavily cross-pollinated by surprise neighbors". </p>
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<p>But "openly pollinated" doesn't really specify EITHER paying attention to isolation OR encouraging interesting cross-pollination. It doesn't mean "selfed", and it doesn't mean "out-crossed" either. All it really means is "I didn't bag these blooms and play around with Q-Tips." </p>
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<p>However, I think that less than 0.1% of hobbyist seed traders collect their trade seeds by bagging-and-dabbing. And the few that do go to all that trouble would mention it and name the parent strains.</p>
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<p>My suggestion is that using "OP" on a traded seed packet to mean "openly pollinated" actually conveys no new information at all. </p>
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<p>Instead it confuses people who think that "OP" means the same thing as it does on commercial seed packets: a stable variety that "comes true" to its parents. </p>
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<p>I wish that the common usage was something different, like</p>
<p>"PB" for pollinated in a bag or with big isolation distances</p>
<p>"PI" for pollinated in some isolation,</p>
<p>"PP" for promiscuous pollination. </p>
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