What makes watermelons seedless

Seeds from the triploid fruit grow into triploid plants. They don't produce much pollen, so you plant some diploid plants. This pollen stimulates the triploid female flowers to produce fruit. Because the number of chromosomes is not compatible, they don't have seeds. The seedless watermelons are smaller and rounder. They are supposed to be sweeter and last longer. But do you think it's really worth all the extra work? Friday, July 15, Diploid Watermelon plants are usually diploid, like us, meaning they have two sets of chromosomes, the packages of DNA with instructions for life.

Triploid Seedless watermelons are triploid. Tetraploid The way you get tetraploids is by applying a chemical called colchicine which messes with cells as they are dividing. Mixing It Up Watermelon plants have male flowers and female flowers.

However, one problem that does continue is seed germination. Initially, seed germination of seedless watermelon was quite low.

Each time the seeds are watered it lowers their temperature. On a small scale, warm temperatures can be maintained by watering transplant flats, covering them and letting them heat up in the sun in the greenhouse for a day or more. Then, plant the seed and cover them again until seedlings emerge. Either process will take four to five days. After emergence, seedlings are then finished off in the greenhouse for three weeks and then transplanted to the field late May or early June.

Following these steps generally produces a more than 90 percent germination rate. High germination rate is important since seed of seedless types is quite expensive compared to seeded varieties. The standard number of chromosomes in watermelon is This is called the diploid number di meaning two, as in dissect — cut in two.

With this even number, cell division is highly regular and produces pollen and egg cells with 11 chromosomes that recombine to produce seed with the usual 22 chromosomes. A few fertile gametes are produced, however, but the number produced is less than 0.

Since a few fertile gametes are produced, a few hard seeds can develop; whether they occur or not depends on growing conditions as well as genetics. The development of these pips is dependent on the variety and environmental conditions.

Crop Production. Did you find this helpful? It was helpful. It wasn't helpful. This website would like to use cookies to collect information to improve your browsing experience. Please review our Privacy Statement for more information. Do you accept? Accept Deny Privacy policy. Revoke cookies.