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Seedless watermelons are triploid (3 sets of chromosomes). They are created by crossing a tetraploid (4 sets of chromosomes) with a diploid (2 sets of chromosomes). The resulting triploid plants produce flowers, fruit, and pollen. However, the pollen is non-viable; it cannot pollinate itself or other flowers. The fruit development process still requires pollination to trigger cell division and fruit set.
So, growers must plant a diploid (seeded) watermelon nearby whose sole purpose is to provide viable pollen, ergo a pollinizer. These male plants are usually morphologically different as they are not harvested.
The pollen from the pollinizer stimulates the ovary to grow. The seeds fail to fully develop because of uneven chromosome pairing during meiosis; the fruit enlarges normally but is seedless. The tan or white “seeds” sometimes seen are undeveloped seed coats.
How Should Growers Plant Pollinizers?
Commercial recommendations:
What Makes a Good Pollinizer Variety?
A pollinizer should produce large quantities of strong, viable pollen; flower at the same time as the seedless variety, and not out-compete the seedless vines. Some pollinizers are standard-seeded watermelons, but there are also dedicated mini-pollinizer lines developed only for pollen production. These make small fruit, so they do not take up too much space or attention from the main crop.
It is important to note that pollinizers do not affect the fruit quality of seedless melons; they simply trigger fruit growth.
For more information, please see links below:
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