Gardening Term of the Day~ Open Pollinated

Hello! Well, I'll bet you have all heard of "open pollinated" (a.k.a. OP) plants. For those of you who aren't 100% sure what this means, I thought I'd talk about it. OP varieties are seeds that result from pollination by insects, wind, self-pollination (where both male and female flowers are present on the same plant)or other natural forms of pollination.

These are the plants that are great to save seed from because they will be "true to type", meaning they will have the same traits as the parent plant from which it was harvested. However, this is not fool proof! You know mother nature! Both wind and insects will pollinate different plants planted close together. Some will "cross pollinate". And if you are raising plants for seed this will be a factor that can be controlled, but if your a home gardener, it's not a big deal. Squash and pumpkins are notorious for this, but hey, maybe you'll invent something interesting!