Eli5 How do people grow seedless watermelons? Like where do they get the seeds?

Question

Eli5 How do people grow seedless watermelons? Like where do they get the seeds?

In: Other

Answer 1

What nobody ITT has mentioned so far is that when you purchase seedless watermelons from a [seed catalog ](https://www.johnnyseeds.com/growers-library/vegetables/watermelon-triploid-seedless-production.html) they actually send you two packs of seeds. One pack has the diploid type one pack has the triploid type and you plant them together in the field or greenhouse so that the diploid pollinates the triploid producing seedless fruit on the triploid plants.

Edit: The diploid type is usually a variety selected because it produces a lot of flowers over a long period of time to provide pollen for the triploid plants. Without pollination the triploid plants don’t get the signal to start forming fruits. Interestingly the diploid plants will produce fruit as well (with seeds) but is easily distinguishable from the seedless fruits.