"Here are some things you need to know about hybrids and heirlooms that might answer some of the questions in this thread. The quote Texas A&M was good, but it may not be clear to everyone. I suspect some of you do know the differences, but here's my explanation.
Some plants are called self-pollinating, and others are cross pollinated. Usually with self-pollinating plants, like tomatoes, its a simple mechanical arrangement. the stamens are attached to inside of the corolla. When the stigma is ready for pollination, the pollen falls out of the corolla onto the stigma. Much of it misses and falls to the ground. In cross-pollinating plants, the pollen moves away from the host plant and fertilizes adjacent plants. In pumpkins, bees do much of the work. In corn, because females parts emerges midway up on the plant, they intercept pollen that falls from above, often from adjacent plants.
So, heirloom varieties are simply old varieties that were passed down, generation to generation. For the most part, they are true to the variety. BUT, when bees visit peppers and tomatoes, they pick up pollen and share the pollen with other plants. Even the wind moves pollen of these plants enough to cause "outcrossing', or unintentional crosses. Ever wonder how so many varieties of heirloom tomatoes were developed. Mostly, it was unintentional. Either by bees working over a garden or by wind moving pollen, crosses were made in "self"-pollinating plants. So when the seed was saved, there were odd plants that emerged. Many gardeners would find this interesting, and save those seeds separately. The original variety is preserved by selecting plants that bore "true-to-type". If you really want to keep an heirloom tomato, true -to-type, bag a couple of clusters of flowers before they open. They will truly self-pollinate and will be true to type.
If you have cross pollinating varieties like corn or pumpkins, you need to manage pollen flow. Heirloom varieties of these crops must be carefully managed to retain their "True-to-type" characteristics, or "wild" pollen will move in and change the variety.
Have you checked to see how many 'Brandywine' varieties there are? Probably dozens. That's because the pollen flow wasn't managed. So Kenton, you should bag a few flowers of your peppadew peppers, jut to be sure. You can self-pollinate them yourself if that helps.
Hybrids, as Texas A&M explains, are a whole different ballgame in annual crops than they are in grapes. You have to create breeding lines that are very homozygous through selfing. You must maintain those lines separate from the hybrid variety production process. Every year, you produce new hybrid variety seed from the breeding line seed you produced the previous year. But these kinds of hybrids are extremely true-to-type. You can find outliers but they need to be less than 0.01%, at the most. The reason they are so true to type is because of the extreme homozygosity of the parent breeding lines.
So heirlooms are easy to mix up. They are "generally" true-to-type, but if you want to keep them that way, protect them from "wild" pollen. I actually have an "heirloom" tomato variety I selected from an outcrossed plant. The parent plant produced several huge (12 oz, mol) fruit. The plant I selected and am trying to purify has 6-8 oz fruit that are very uniform and smooth. Otherwise, they look and taste like the parent plant. If you've grown 'Striped German' or 'Big Rainbow' tomato, you'll know what I have. They are beautiful and tasty. If I succeed, I'll probably try to patent it.
So, I help that helps clear up some confusion as to what constitutes heirlooms, hybrids and heresy.
Bill"
(photo credit: Bon Appetit. Pictured are Peppadew Peppers.)
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