mmcdermott1 said: "if you personally did not pollinate the flowers by hand then YES they are open pollinated and I stick by that statement because it is fact."
mmcdermott1, you and Pr0digal_son are using similiar terms to discuss something different. No reason for you to rag on him. He is using the terms to denote the plant. You are using the terms to denote how pollination is accomplished. His use of the term is much more in keeping with seed savers, heirloom perpetuators, and home gardening. Your use of the term to describe a method rather than a plant characteristic is an industrial thing. You are a big time grower, acres of crop. I am willing to bet that like me, he is a gardner / homesteader who uses the terms the way they are used outside of your huge industry.
If you would talk to Pr0digal_son civily and with respect, read what he is saying, you would probably come to the same conclusion I have. That he is using the term open pollination to mean flowers that open and make it possible for the pollen to spread. This is opposed to cleistogamy where the flowers are stingy bastards which do not open and share their pollin. Things like peanuts, peas, and beans. Oddly, also Viola. Odd because the general rule of thumb is that open pollinating plants have perty flowers and cleistogamy do not. I have never looked at a peanut plant and stood in awe at its beauty.
So you can see how your statement is bunk and you kind of look silly. I have never hand pollinated a peanut, pea, or bean and yet none of these things are open pollinated. They are cleistogamy / self pollinating. This is not to say that an open pollination plant can not self pollinate. As Pr0digal_son pointed out, open pollinating plants can do so without wind, bugs, or any help other than gravity. I do shake branches I have bagged for seed saving to help things along, but as long as the boy parts are higher than the girl parts, some of the pollen will fall even without wind.
Please guy, you are a big time grower that many folk here can learn from. Stop being mean to people. Even if they do not have acres and acres of plants, there is something to learn from folklike Pr0digal_son. He is obviously not the same type of grower as you, but that does not make him bad, wrong, or somehow beneath you.
Pr0digal_son, if I am wrong about you being common stock / working class gardner, I apologize for the assumption. I mean it as a compliment. Like eating at the local pizza place and not Pizza Hut or what ever. Nothing wrong with Pizza Hut, just not my thing.
