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Re: F2 and open Pollinated varieties versus F1

Many catalogs do explain this, and James H. Hudson's also explains the
ramifications for the consumer. This does not make me much of an expert,
but if I understand correctly, it is the F1's which you should not
expect to produce seeds for you that will yeild plants like the one they
came from. I have heard one person or institution refer to false F1's
which are actually F2's apparently mislabelled. My approach has
therefore been to pay less attention to these, and try a few "F1's"
anyway if they are something special. 

Open-Pollenated as I understand it means pollenated outdoors, as opposed
to Closed or indoor pollenated, and Hand-Pollenated. The last two are
generally supposed to be mose precise and imply a greater likelihood
that the seed hasn't come from an unwanted hybridization. I have seen
open-pollenation of corn where they're literally dumping bagfuls of
pollen onto the plant to be pollenated, which I presume helps assure
less unwanted hybrids. 

I could easiy be wrong.
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