'Personal Melons': Watermelon Farmers Focus On Small And Seedless

Kim Severson in the New York Times:

At roadside stands here, you're more likely to come across a hybrid called the Super Sweet 710 that farmers like Ernest Brown grow. It has seeds, sure, but it lacks some of the personality of the older varieties. It's just a bit flatter in flavor than the Jubilee Mr. Brown prefers. But the 710s are cheaper to grow, a little smaller and more uniform.

"You can handle them better and stack them better," he said.

The game, however, is in small, seedless melons.

Only about 2 of every 10 watermelons sold in the United States have seeds. And only a tiny percentage, agriculture experts estimate, are the old-fashioned heirloom varieties, all with seeds, that once made up all the watermelons in America.

Read the whole story

Comments

[deweydecimal]

09:46 PM on 08/22/2010

So much scaremongering on huffpo. Learn some science people, it's fascinating what clever farmers, breeders and scientists have learned and accomplished to provide us with the food we eat today.

I wish our education system promoted more science education then our population would be more resistant to scaremongering, better more conscientious consumers and care more for the environment as well.

There's nothing wrong with seedless watermelons. They are produced naturally by breeding together a tetraploid parental plant with a normal diploid parental plant. The resulting triploid seeds are grown and then pollinated by diploid plants grown in the same batch.

Any arguments about the lack of biodiversity etc are more about the tendency for big growers to bet on a sure thing. Which can be helped by farmers and local activists growing their own heirloom varieties or setting up seedbanks, and for consumers to be more open to lumpy misshapen fruit that may not look perfect but are still delicious.

[henrypapillon]

10:00 AM on 08/20/2010

Flavorless, also,

[wikipedia az]

06:08 PM on 08/19/2010

i won't eat this steroid using beeings

[Uproar]

04:55 PM on 08/18/2010

So much for the joy of kids eating watermelons and being told that one would grow int heir stomach if they ate a seed by mistake. That was all I needed to avoid them!

It's amazing how utterly slothlike and lazy we are, that we need seedless everything. Does it really take that much more time to spit out a few seeds? JHC, I can't believe the level of laziness we have that every fruit has to be made without seeds so that we don't exert an extra ounce of energy, or waste one second of time picking out seeds. People, eating grapes with seeds won't kill you. And spitting out watermelon seeds isn't that hard. Grow up!

[sulalives]

01:05 PM on 08/18/2010

AND I AM PISSED OFF WHERE IS THE REAL THING THAT SWEET RED SEEDED WATERMELON THAT I GREW TO LOVE LOVE LOVE IT WHERE SEEDLESS NEEDS SUGAR OR SPLENDA

[Decorina]

11:25 AM on 08/18/2010

So where do the seeds come from for seedless watermelons?

[sulalives]

01:06 PM on 08/18/2010

FROM THE GENETIC POOLS IN THE BACK YARD OF SOME MAD SCIENTISTS...if you tasted on you will be upset to the most high girla

[JScott]

01:46 PM on 08/18/2010

I forgot the botanical term but for the seedless ones there are a few that are seeded and they use those for the next harvest, it's similar to how you get seedless grapes.

[Ljilja]

10:50 AM on 08/18/2010

Nothing tastes like watermelons in the summer! My mouth waters just looking at this picture.

http://graciouslivingdaybyday.com/

[JScott]

10:40 AM on 08/18/2010

Nothing new here we've had these in So Cal for a few years now.

[audadvnc]

10:02 AM on 08/18/2010

I haven't bought a whole watermelon in years. I always buy one quartered, and it's still plenty.

[sulalives]

01:07 PM on 08/18/2010

must have a small refrig