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It's grown from seedless watermelon seeds in sun-warmed soil with a little help from the bees. A "seedless watermelon" search in Yahoo! turned up a page from the Territorial Seed Company describing the "culture" of this modern hybrid fruit. Watermelon breeders discovered that crossing a diploid plant (bearing the standard two sets of chromosomes) with a tetraploid plant (having four sets of chromosomes) results in a fruit that produces a triploid seed. (Yes, it has three sets of chromosomes). This seed grows fruit that rarely develops seeds, although you may find some empty white seed coats. The
melon's flesh is firmer because the usual softening of the fruit around the seeds does not occur. Triploid varieties are more difficult to grow than their seedier cousins but it can be done. Your best bet is to germinate these pricey seeds indoors at an optimal 85º F, and plant them outdoors after soil temperatures have warmed to at least 70º F. It's easier to buy melon transplants and set them out when temperatures are in the 80s. Because seedless melons are sterile and produce little pollen, you'll need to also plant a normal pollinator variety of watermelon in the patch so the bees can pollinate the flowers, contributing to the development of flavorful, well-formed fruit. We read about the history and
popularity of the seedless watermelon at the Access Excellence web site, a health and bioscience resource, where we examined a picture explaining Mendelian patterns of inheritance and learned about Warren Barham, a pioneering breeder working to develop sweeter cultivars. So enjoy the sweet, seedless varieties, but don't worry, we don't think they'll put watermelon seed spitters out of business anytime soon.
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