@nyanbinawy yeah, artist has quite a bit of creativity
Also, would the kids nowadays (I know u 14yo's be lurking on here when you're not supposed to) know what the seeds are? Cuz like aren't the watermelons all bred/modified to have no seeds?
@nyanbinawy yeah, artist has quite a bit of creativity
Also, would the kids nowadays (I know u 14yo's be lurking on here when you're not supposed to) know what the seeds are? Cuz like aren't the watermelons all bred/modified to have no seeds?
Where did you hear that from? Watermelons still have seeds. How do you expect new watermelons to grow without seeds?
Welcome to America, where all the crops are GMO and seedless produce dominate the fresh food shelves.
Seedless versions of plants are typically selectively bred until one grows with all or mostly seedless fruits, and then new ones are grown via botanical grafting. This is not a uniquely American practice; it isn't even particularly new. People have been making new cultivars of plants in this way since before the invention of writing, and seedless grapes and bananas (and watermelons, and more) are available worldwide. In commercial banana sales, it's practically only seedless fruits grown, with new banana trees made by grafting trimmings onto another tree.
With respect to watermelons I have no idea how common seedless ones are, like, worldwide but in America I do know seeded watermelons aren't so long gone to be unrecognizable. Anywhere here selling whole watermelons will mark whether they're seeded or not, and seeded ones are super common.
Seedless versions of plants are typically selectively bred until one grows with all or mostly seedless fruits, and then new ones are grown via botanical grafting. This is not a uniquely American practice; it isn't even particularly new. People have been making new cultivars of plants in this way since before the invention of writing, and seedless grapes and bananas (and watermelons, and more) are available worldwide. In commercial banana sales, it's practically only seedless fruits grown, with new banana trees made by grafting trimmings onto another tree.
That's true for most seedless fruits, but propagating watermelon cuttings is unreliable so nearly all of them are started off seed instead. The seeds are obtained by crossing diploid (two sets of chromosomes) watermelon to tetraploid (four sets) watermelon to get hybrid triploid (three sets of chromosomes) watermelon seeds that are mostly sterile.
It's a pretty common technique in the seed industry, though not necessarily to produce sterile seeds. Most of the time the first generation seeds have highly desirable traits but their offspring don't reliably inherit those traits so farmers just buy the seeds from dedicated seed suppliers who do the crossing each time between two distinct cultivars. If you ever bought a seed packet labelled "F1", that's what you're buying, a first-generation hybrid.
That's true for most seedless fruits, but propagating watermelon cuttings is unreliable so nearly all of them are started off seed instead. The seeds are obtained by crossing diploid (two sets of chromosomes) watermelon to tetraploid (four sets) watermelon to get hybrid triploid (three sets of chromosomes) watermelon seeds that are mostly sterile.
It's a pretty common technique in the seed industry, though not necessarily to produce sterile seeds. Most of the time the first generation seeds have highly desirable traits but their offspring don't reliably inherit those traits so farmers just buy the seeds from dedicated seed suppliers who do the crossing each time between two distinct cultivars. If you ever bought a seed packet labelled "F1", that's what you're buying, a first-generation hybrid.
Oh, neat. Yeah, my specialty isn't in horticulture or agriculture, I just like to read about a lot of different things, though I am working on my doctorate on the Ancient Near East so some notion of the kinds of agricultural technology they had pops up. So I figured, well, we've sure been grafting for a long time and it can produce results like this, probably what people are doing now. But yeah, not a plant guy, just an enthusiast.
It's a joke against Mosanto. And yes, while bananas sold worldwide are technically 'seedless' a lot of them that is not of Cavendish strain will still actually contain tiny inviable seeds as black dots running near the center section.
It's a joke against Mosanto. And yes, while bananas sold worldwide are technically 'seedless' a lot of them that is not of Cavendish strain will still actually contain tiny inviable seeds as black dots running near the center section.
I figured it was a joke. But isn't it the same for seedless watermelons, where they will still have very small malformed seeds inside of them?
Where did you hear that from? Watermelons still have seeds. How do you expect new watermelons to grow without seeds?
I haven't thought it out completely, I just know only seedless watermelons are available at the supermarket I frequent. But it seems like some in the community are in the know.
Cheers everyone, thanks for the agricultural/seed discussion.
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