# Seedless Watermelon Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 12, 2000, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seedless-watermelon-question/29067 "2000-08-12T03:42:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![APB9999](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB9999](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB9999)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seedless-watermelon-question/29067/1 "2000-08-12T03:42:15Z")
Okay, so I’m eating some seedless watermelon. They cultivate these things through clippings, obviously, since there’s no seeds. Some genetic mutation occurred that prevented seed development, and a smart farmer jumped on it and cultivated seedless watermelons. My question: Why does the flesh of seedless watermelons have spaces for the nonexistent seeds? Along the same lines, what is melon flesh made of? Is it cellular? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seedless-watermelon-question/29067/2 "2000-08-12T04:07:34Z")
WAG: The melon won’t create seeds, but on a certain level, the melon doesn’t “know” that. Therefore, the fruit itself forms as normal, including spaces foor the seeds, but the seeds themselves don’t form. Do seedless apples have spaces near the core? To be honest, I never thought about it. ---
**Author:** ![barflyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dc4da7/32.png) [@barflyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barflyer)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seedless-watermelon-question/29067/3 "2000-08-12T04:35:29Z")
They are a steril hybrid, like mules, which are also steril ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seedless-watermelon-question/29067/4 "2000-08-12T04:43:37Z")
Seedless watermelons do have seeds–they are just extremely underdeveloped. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seedless-watermelon-question/29067/5 "2000-08-12T04:54:25Z")
I’ve noticed that with the seedless watermelons I buy, they will have a few (four or five) fully-developed seeds. ---
**Author:** ![barflyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dc4da7/32.png) [@barflyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barflyer)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seedless-watermelon-question/29067/6 "2000-08-12T05:03:36Z")
But do they grow into another seedless, a regular one, or don’t they grow? I’d always heard the seedless kind were just cross-bred, not grown from cuttings, but I’m not a farmer. Any hints in the Burpee catalog, gardeners? ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seedless-watermelon-question/29067/7 "2000-08-12T05:08:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Green Bean \* > \*\*Seedless watermelons do have seeds–they are just extremely underdeveloped. \*\* So is the flavor, in my opinion. I haven’t tried one in years, though. Are they better now? Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seedless-watermelon-question/29067/8 "2000-08-12T14:15:48Z")
You produce seedless watermelons by hand-pollinating two different kinds of watermelons, the crossing of which happens to produce seeds that grow into a watermelon that has tiny, soft seeds which are sterile (like **Barflyer** said). When you buy seeds for seedless watermelons from Burpee, you are buying the product of endless man-hours of hand-pollinating (actually woman-hours, because it’s mostly women who get hired to do this, the men all have REAL jobs). This is why they are so much more expensive than regular Charleston Grey watermelons, and why you only get 5 or 6 seeds in a package, instead of 50 or 100. ---
**Author:** ![APB9999](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB9999](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB9999)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seedless-watermelon-question/29067/9 "2000-08-12T20:38:05Z")
The thrust of my question was how the empty space in the center of the watermelon flesh knows where it is and what shape to be, and how in regular watermelons the seeds manage to find the holes. But I guess after thinking about it more, it makes sense. If there are underdeveloped seeds present, they may still be capable of secreting a signal (or an enzyme) to the surrounding flesh to make a hole. Simple enough, if right. So is the flesh cellular? ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seedless-watermelon-question/29067/10 "2000-08-12T20:51:48Z")
The OP is kind of like asking why do people born without hands still have arms? Your question assumes that the cavities into which the seeds fit do not exist separately from the seeds. Two different “features,” although obviously very closely related. To eliminate one in no way necessitates the elimination of the other. (This argument is of a theoretical nature, obviously, because as Green Bean pointed out, the seeds are there; just underdeveloped.) As to the cellular nature of the “flesh,” does anyone know if _any_ “fleshh” is non-cellular? I imagine some substances produced by a living organism is non-cellular (saliva, sap), but is any tissue without cells? My assumption is no (therefore the answer to your question is, I assume, yes). Anyone know any differently? ---
**Author:** ![APB9999](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB9999](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB9999)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2000, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seedless-watermelon-question/29067/11 "2000-08-13T03:19:54Z")
A lot of plant material isn’t cellular. In fact I bet MOST plant biomass in the world isn’t cellular in the sense of being composed of living cells (though it may have been laid down by cells and so have a cell-like structure). Wood, for example. But I’m not sure about melons. And the op is more like asking how can people without arms have hands? If you assume that the spaces are completely independent of seeds, it raises a host of problems. The question isn’t very important, because I suspect the holes are NOT so independent, and are the result of the underdeveloped seeds. Now I just want to know if the signal is a cell signal or merely an enzyme of some sort. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2000, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seedless-watermelon-question/29067/12 "2000-08-13T05:20:35Z")
**mangeorge** wrote: > [@](#): > > I haven’t tried one in years, though. Are they better now? I hadn’t tried too many until this year. Every one that I’ve bought has had excellent flavor. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seedless-watermelon-question/29067/13 "2000-08-14T15:19:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by APB9999 \* > **A lot of plant material isn’t cellular. In fact I bet MOST plant biomass in the world isn’t cellular in the sense of being composed of living cells (though it may have been laid down by cells and so have a cell-like structure). Wood, for example. But I’m not sure about melons.** No cite, but I have distinct memories of images of wood cells from highschool biology. What’s wood if it’s not cells? > [@](#): > > _continued_ > \*\*And the op is more like asking how can people without arms have hands? If you assume that the spaces are completely independent of seeds, it raises a host of problems. The question isn’t very important, because I suspect the holes are NOT so independent, and are the result of the underdeveloped seeds. Now I just want to know if the signal is a cell signal or merely an enzyme of some sort. \*\* I never said they were completely independent; in fact I said they were obviously very closely related. But removing the seeds merely makes the cavities vestigial, not detrimental to the plant’s survival. In other words, while the presence of the seeds makes the cavities necessary, the seeds’ absence does not necessitate the closing of the holes. After all, we still have an appendix.