Seedless Watermelons

Origin of this Watermelon

The popularity of the seedless watermelons growing may be outdated with the watermelon seed spitting contests. Several men worked on the development of the watermelon but many found that while they bred plants to produce smaller seeds, the fruit that contained them normally was not marketable. It wasn’t until about 50 years ago that the seedless watermelon finally made it to market. Through years of research and study, scientists now improved on the flavor, making it one of the most popular varieties.

How is a Seedless Watermelon Grown?

Seedless watermelons don’t occur without the help of scientists. They genetically alter a watermelon using colchicines so that it doubles the number of chromosomes. They pollinate the plant with four sets of chromosomes with a normal plant. The seeds from this plant produce the watermelon. These plants are similar to the mule, they produce no seeds, therefore have no off springs.

Seedless Watermelon Pollination

As mentioned before, the seed from the genetically altered watermelon needs a regular melon to pollinate it in order to produce a seedless melon. When they plant the seeds, those who grow seedless melons also must plant normal watermelons with seeds at close proximity. In this way, pollination by honeybees takes place. If there’s no normal melon in the area, there’s no seedless melons produced.

Planting Seedless Watermelon Seeds

The seedless melon requires soil temperature to be at least 70 degrees at least 4 inches down into the soil. If it’s cooler then the seed germination rate reduces. The seeds need a consistently moist soil for germination also.

Normally, the melons are grown in greenhouses. You must transplant them to their final location before they have three true leaves. If the plant is any larger than that, its growth is stunted and the plant is low yielding.

The watermelon needs to be in rolls that are 80 inches apart and placed every 4 feet. Don’t forget to plant a row of regular watermelon close by the seedless.

Temperature

The melon needs warm weather and lots of it in order to mature properly. The daytime temperatures should be at least 80 to 95 degrees with it falling no cooler than 60 to 70 degrees at night. If the temperature is cooler than that, the fruit takes longer than its normal 85 to 100 days to ripen.

Pest and Disease

Aphids

Seedless watermelons succumb to the same pests and diseases of normal watermelons. Aphids play havoc with the seedless melons. You’ll know that the aphids are on the plant if the leaves curl and are deformed. Spray them with a strong water spray or used insecticidal soap to eliminate them. Ladybugs are natural predators of aphids and make a great addition to the garden.

Squash bugs

You can tell if your melons are infested with squash bugs in your by the small specks on the leaves that then turn yellow and brown. A wilting vine also gives notification of infestation. Handpick the bugs and destroy them.

Wilt Disease

The plants begin to wilt and eventually die. You have to remove any infected plants or the disease spreads.

Powdery mildew

White powder starts on the leaves and spreads all over the plant. Normally you don’t have to do anything for this disease since it occurs near the end of the growing season.

Mosaic

This is a virus aphids carry. It causes the misshapen leaves with dark green spots. It stunts the growth of plants and affects the shape and color of the fruit. Control the aphids, rotate the planting location and destroy any infected plant.

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