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More on Doreen's Open Pollinated and Heirloom thread

Doreen, could we hear a little more clarificaiton on this sentence:

>OP seeds are generally stablized up to the F6 generation--seeds have been
saved six times in a row and the >off-spring each time is true.

The "up to the" phrase confuses me.  Let's say I've got a tomato I don't
know the status of but like for flavor, habit, disease resistance, etc.  I
grow it out, plant seeds from the F1 fruit to make the F2 generation plant,
and repeat that process until reaching F6.

Is it correct that if the resulting plant has looked like (and fruit tasted
like) the F1 all through that chain, then what I have in hand is ipso facto
an open-pollinated tomato?  But if the repetition chain broke down at, say,
the F5 generation (producing fruits that were different or some such
variation), I *don't* have an OP tomato?

Also, you later said,
>There are three types of heirlooms.
>Those passed down from generation to generation within ethnic, regional or
>religious enclaves.
>Those that were of commercial importance before the advent of hybrids.
>Those that are a cross between two heirloom and have been stablized to the
>F6 or greater generation.  Banana Legs and Green Zebra tomatoes are examples
>of this--both were created by Tom Wagner of Tater'Mater in the early 1980's.

Re the third type of heirlooms, I can see how turning 2 heirlooms into a
hybrid (what Wagner did) and then propagating it to the F6 and finding no
alterations would yield a new OP, but how does that qualify the product to
call itself an heirloom?

I guess I always assumed that the term "heirloom" carried some connotation
of antiquity beyond simple OP status.

--Janet

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