@Maurice
I had never heard about there only being one open channel in the pistil or seen it illustrated that way. I have just gotten into the habit of skipping split pistils when spreading pollen. But if there is just one open channel wouldn't that mean that any section of the three split sections of the carpel would lead to the one central channel and the pollination should still have a good chance of being successful? Maybe it is a different problem than just being a split pistil, often one section of the pistil is very short, one section a little longer and one section looks full length. When I have tried putting pollen on on three even, I had little success. Is there something taking place when the pistil splits that might cause a blockage of the one open central channel?
Edited to change carpels to pistils.
