Whats the difference between seedless watermelons and watermelons with seeds?
Well, one has seeds and the other doesn’t. That’s a terrific question, although the answer is a tad technical. Basically, when you cross a male diploid watermelon, meaning one that has 22 chromosomes, with a female tetraploid, meaning one that’s been treated to double its chromosome count to 44, the resulting offspring will be a triploid with 33 chromosomes. The triploid seeds are available for home gardeners. Because the plants don’t produce pollen, seeds of a seeded variety are included in the packet. You’ll be able to tell the difference between the seeds at a glance, so plan on planting at least one seeded variety for every seedless variety to ensure good pollination. After all, that’s how the fruit is formed in the first place. When sowing, plant the seeds with the pointed end down. Otherwise the seed coats may stick to the emerging seedlings. Seedless watermelons were first developed in 1939. Some of the seedless watermelons are a bit sweeter than their seedy relatives, but that’
