# How do you make a Seedless Watermelon? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 23, 2009, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-seedless-watermelon/494100 "2009-04-23T14:43:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wombat\_Trainer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/35a633/32.png) [@Wombat\_Trainer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wombat_Trainer)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-seedless-watermelon/494100/1 "2009-04-23T14:43:37Z")
If people breed plants to get the traits they desire, then how do you get a seedless watermelon? If you keep breeding watermelons with smaller and smaller seeds, eventually you don’t have any seeds to plant. It’s one of the great mysteries of my life. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-seedless-watermelon/494100/2 "2009-04-23T14:53:10Z")
You take cuttings - snip a bit off the plant, if necessary treat with hormone powder, pot it, it grows into a new plant. After a while pretty much the whole world population of the plant is a clone entity. It’s been a cause for concern with bananas in recent years, since they too have been bred to the atrophying of their seeds. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-seedless-watermelon/494100/3 "2009-04-23T14:54:57Z")
Have you heard of taking cuttings of plant? In fact, I met a botanist from Israel, living in Bakersfield, CA who told me that’s all modern vineyards do. They crossbreed plants, and eventually choose their top choice considering production and quality. They then take cuttings and produce more plants, and take cuttings of those, and it takes about ten years to get the whole process done and have a vineyard of the new plant. But then the whole field is clones of the original competition winner. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-seedless-watermelon/494100/4 "2009-04-23T15:27:38Z")
Seedless watermelons have _nothing_ to do with cuttings. They are crossbreeds between different varieties that results in a type that has few, late developing seeds. [Cecil](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1075/how-do-they-grow-more-seedless-fruit) has more. ---
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-seedless-watermelon/494100/5 "2009-04-23T16:57:34Z")
> [@Wombat\_Trainer](#): > > If people breed plants to get the traits they desire, then how do you get a seedless watermelon? If you keep breeding watermelons with smaller and smaller seeds, eventually you don’t have any seeds to plant. It’s one of the great mysteries of my life. Here is [how.](http://www.ccmr.cornell.edu/education/ask/index.html?quid=651) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-seedless-watermelon/494100/6 "2009-04-23T17:06:52Z")
Seedless watermelons, like bananas and many other seedless varieties, have an odd number of sets of chromosomes. Instead of two (maternal and paternal) like we have, they have three, or five, or seven. This makes it impossible for chromosomes to pair correctly during meiosis I, and the seed spontaneously aborts. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-seedless-watermelon/494100/7 "2009-04-23T23:31:14Z")
Just to say it out loud: Well blows me down. I see that I was making assumptions. I had never heard about this chromosome thing in any way. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-seedless-watermelon/494100/8 "2009-04-24T13:33:16Z")
Huh, and I’ve done enough gardening to know about sterile F1 hybrids, too. :smack: Also to bear in mind, plenty of plants can reproduce by sending out ‘runners’ which, once established, don’t need to be connected to the parent plant any more. OTTOMH I don’t know if that’s true of melons, though I’ve an idea it is - it’s certainly the case with strawberries. Much like cuttings, except it comes built-in with the plant.