Seedless Watermelons: Juicy Food for Thought

Reader Contribution by Sherry Leverich Tucker
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 I grew some heavenly seedless watermelons last year. They were the size of a large cantaloupe with a dark green, striped rind and beautiful, deep red flesh — just the way a good watermelon should be. As sweet as the sweetest watermelon you’ve ever tasted, and every delicious bite was undisturbed by a bothersome seed to have to spit out. Plus, they sold very well at the farmers market — we were even able to ask for more for a small, seedless watermelon than a larger, seeded watermelon.

Planting the Seeds for Seedless Watermelons

Last summer was the first time I ever attempted to grow these watermelons. I selected ‘Solitaire Hybrid’ carried by Totally Tomatoes. I wanted a small, red-fleshed variety, and this one seemed like a good choice. I used a no-till approach to preparing a patch for my watermelons. In early spring, I heavily covered a 10-by-30-foot piece of fertile ground where fescue grass grew with recycled paper feed bags and old ryegrass hay. By the time the plants were ready for transplanting, the ground was mostly workable, with just a few hard pieces of sod to remove during planting.

The package of seeds came with ten seedless seeds, and then a packet of pollinator seeds. When growing seedless (triploid) watermelons, you must have a normal (diploid) watermelon growing alongside to provide the pollination. The pollinator can be any watermelon as long as it is blooming during the same time frame as the seedless variety. Since this one was a smaller, shorter season variety, ‘Sugar Baby’ watermelons made a good pollinator choice.

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