With each new season, Georgia farmers are increasing their
acreage of triploid
watermelons. Every year, more and more show up in grocery stores
and other retail outlets.

A welcome
change

Triploid, or “seedless,” watermelon production didn’t start
catching on in
the United States until the mid-’80s when Georgia farmers
began growing them.

Now, the popularity of triploid melons is rising fast.
Rightly so! Since triploid
melons don’t have those pesky seeds to worry with, you can
concentrate 100 percent on
enjoying the sweet taste of watermelon.

As a group, triploid melons are also among the sweetest,
most flavorful melons. If you
haven’t eaten a “seedless” watermelon, try one. Odds are that
you will really
like it.

Growing your
own

The first thought that will likely come to your mind
is “Oh, boy, this is
good.” If you’re a gardener, the next thought will surely
be, “Can I grow these
in my garden?”

You probably can.

Although growing triploid melons is much like growing
normal watermelons, triploid
melons are a little more persnickety.

‘Seedless’ Melons?

Why are some watermelons seedless? Normal watermelons have
the two sets of chromosomes,
or genetic information, required to create seeds for
reproduction. Seedless melons,
though, have three sets of chromosomes, which makes them
sterile. So they don’t normally
produce pollen or seeds.

At first, watermelons without seeds were called seedless.
After all, this is the one
trait that most clearly distinguishes them from normal
watermelons.

But as more seedless melons were grown, people began to see
that the term
“seedless” wasn’t perfectly accurate. Because triploid (three-
chromosome)
varieties are virtually sterile, they don’t normally produce
true seeds. However, they do
produce some immature, “edible” seed coats. And occasionally,
though rarely,
they can produce a true seed.

Even though a seedless variety may be 99.9 percent
seedless, the occasional true seed
that sometimes develops in a seedless watermelon is
indeed a seed.

Seeding Not
Recommended

Eventually, the term “seedless” caused misunderstandings
among growers, seed
companies and shoppers. So in time, the seed industry stopped
using “seedless”
and used the more precise term “triploid” to designate the
essentially seedless
triploid watermelon varieties.

In the garden, the germination of triploid watermelon seed
is iffy below 80 degrees.
The seed coats of triploid melons are thicker, too, than the
coats of normal watermelon
seeds.

These thicker seed coats tend to stick to the cotyledons as
plants emerge and damage
the plants or delay emergence. So it’s hard to get a stand of
triploid melons from seed.

Since triploid seeds are expensive (30 to 50 cents each),
overseeding and thinning
isn’t a feasible alternative. Simply put, it’s best to buy or
grow triploid watermelon
transplants for your garden.

Pollenizer
Variety

In regular watermelons, fruit enlargement depends on the
developing seed. Since
triploid melons don’t have developing seed, they must be
pollinated to stimulate fruit
growth. But triploid plants are essentially sterile and
produce little, if any, pollen.

To solve the problem, you have to interplant normal
watermelons within rows of triploid
melons. In each row, transplant a normal diploid plant,
followed by two triploid plants,
then a diploid plant and so on down the row.

Make sure the melons of the diploid variety you plant as a
pollenizer are easy to tell
from the triploid. The watermelons on the diploid variety will
have seeds.

By taking a little more time and using a few precautions,
you, too, can grow
“seedless” melons in your garden. They are well worth the
effort. And for your
annual seed-spitting contest, the pollenizer variety will
provide plenty of seed.