Seedless watermelons don't grow who, they grow from seeds that are specially created. These seeds are produced by crossing two different types of watermelon lines to create plants with an odd number of chromosomes.
How Seedless Watermelons Are Grown: A Detailed Explanation
The process of growing seedless watermelons involves a specific cross-breeding technique that renders the resulting fruit without mature seeds. Here's a breakdown of the process:
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Creating Tetraploid Watermelons: The process starts with a standard diploid watermelon (having two sets of chromosomes, like most watermelons). These are treated with a chemical like colchicine. This treatment doubles the number of chromosomes, creating a tetraploid watermelon (four sets of chromosomes).
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Cross-Pollination: The tetraploid watermelon is then cross-pollinated with a standard diploid watermelon.
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Triploid Seed Production: This cross-pollination produces seeds for triploid watermelons (three sets of chromosomes). These are the seeds you buy to grow seedless watermelons.
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Planting and Pollination: The triploid seeds are planted. These plants produce seedless watermelons. However, they still need pollination to initiate fruit development. Therefore, standard diploid watermelon plants (the ones with seeds) are usually planted nearby to provide the necessary pollen. Bees then transfer the pollen.
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Seedless Fruit Development: The triploid watermelon plants develop watermelons that lack mature, black seeds. The fruit may contain small, white, edible seed coats, but no viable seeds. Because the plant has an odd number of chromosomes, it cannot produce fertile seeds through normal sexual reproduction.
In Summary:
Seedless watermelons grow from special triploid seeds that are produced by cross-pollinating diploid and tetraploid watermelon plants. These triploid plants require pollination from diploid plants to produce the seedless fruit.
