Learn / Ask The Landscape Professional
Lately, I have been seeing lots of seedless watermelons in the supermarket. I've been wondering, how do seedless watermelons reproduce if they don't have seeds? Thank you. Pauline
Answer
That is a great question. Plants can reproduce in several ways
other than by seeds. Surprisingly, most fruit that we eat today
(except citrus) doesn't come from seeds. One way strawberries
reproduce is by sending out "stolens" or runners which are
long roots that spread out from an existing main strawberry
plant. These runners are capable of becoming new plants. In
the case of seedless grapes, most commonly, they are grown
from cuttings from existing grape vines that are dipped in a
rooting hormone and planted. These cuttings are clones of
the original plant. Using cuttings to grow seedless grapes has
been around since Roman times! Seedless watermelons are a bit different. The seedless watermelon was
first "invented" over 50 years ago and commercial production started about 25 years ago. Early versions of
seedless watermelons lacked the sweetness and color of their seeded counterparts, but watermelon breeders
have been steadily improving them so today they are of high quality. A seedless watermelon is a man-made
hybrid that has 33 chromosomes. Since normal seeded watermelons have 22 chromosomes, creating a
watermelon with 33 chromosomes took some doing. Scientists discovered that if they applied a chemical
compound, Colchicine, which comes from the seeds and bulbs of Autumn Crocus, Colchicum autumnale L., to
the early growth stages of normal 22 chromosome watermelons, they could create a seeded watermelon with
44 chromosomes. They also discovered that if they took
the male pollen from a 22 chromosome watermelon and
fertilized a female flower of a 44 chromosome watermelon
plant, the result was a seeded watermelon that had 33
chromosomes. When the 33 chromosome seeds grow,
they produce the sterile seedless watermelon that we know
today. Ironically, even though a seedless watermelon is
grown from seed, it doesn't produce any of its own! It's easy
to see why seedless watermelons are more expensive
in the store!
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About Linda Lillie
Linda K. Lillie is the President of Sprigs & Twigs, Inc, the premier
landscape design and maintenance, tree care, lawn care, stonework, and carpentry
service provider in southeastern Connecticut since 1997. She is a graduate of
Connecticut College in Botany, a Connecticut Master Gardener and a national
award winning landscape designer for her landscape design and landscape installation work.
