What Is the Price of Seedless Watermelon Seeds? A Detailed Guide to Growing Methods

Seedless watermelon is a triploid watermelon produced by crossing a diploid with a tetraploid created through mutagenesis. Because the triploid cells experience disrupted synapsis during meiosis, triploid watermelons cannot form seeds. However, seedless watermelons are grown from seeds - just not the seeds found inside a seedless watermelon. Let's take a look at seedless watermelon seed prices and growing methods below!

How much do seedless watermelon seeds cost?

Variety Name Packaging Specification Reference Price Linglong Seedless Mini Watermelon 8 seeds/bag 1.5-2.5 yuan/bag Black Skin Seedless Watermelon 700 seeds/bag 65-75 yuan/bag Beiqing No. 9 Seedless Watermelon 800 seeds/box 80-100 yuan/box Langchao No. 2 Seedless Watermelon 50 g/piece 90-95 yuan/piece

Note: The price of seedless watermelon seeds varies depending on seed quality, variety, place of origin and market conditions. It is worth noting, however, that the seedless watermelon itself has no reproductive capacity and no seeds. Although its cultivation techniques share some similarities with ordinary watermelons, there are also differences.

Where do seedless watermelon seeds come from?

1. Artificial induction: Soak diploid ordinary watermelon seeds in a 0.2-0.4% colchicine solution for 12-24 hours, or drip a 0.2-0.4% colchicine solution onto the growing point of the seedling stem tip at 6-7 pm every day for four consecutive days.

2. Careful management: Wash the treated seeds or seedlings clean with water. During treatment and the recovery period, place the plants under diffused light and strictly avoid high temperatures. At the same time, provide good growing conditions and careful management before they become established.

3. Bagging and pollination: Use a tetraploid watermelon as the female parent and pollinate it with diploid pollen to produce triploid seeds. For small-scale seed production, bag the flowers in the afternoon and hand-pollinate the next morning. For large-scale seed production, separate the areas by zone and plant tetraploid female parent and diploid male parent plants in proportion.

Seed Treatment for Seedless Watermelons

1. Seed selection and soaking: Select seeds according to the variety's characteristics based on seed shape, color, size and plumpness. Then sun-dry the seeds for 1-2 days, place the triploid seeds in 55°C warm water and stir, then let the water cool naturally and soak the seeds for 6-8 hours.

2. Artificial shell cracking: Seedless watermelon seeds can be cracked either dry or wet. However, dry cracking easily damages the seed embryo and makes soaking time and soaking temperature difficult to control, while wet cracking has little effect on germination rate regardless of soaking duration and is easy to manage.

3. Seed germination: Place the soaked and cracked seeds under a constant temperature of 33-35°C for germination. After 24 hours, more than 90% of those with germination ability will have sprouted. Remove those with sprouts 0.5 cm long for sowing. After 36 hours, essentially all normal seeds will have germinated.

Growing Methods for Seedless Watermelons

1. Seedling stage management: Seedless watermelons require relatively high temperatures from seed germination to cotyledon emergence, ideally 30-35°C during the day and around 25°C at night. When the seedlings push through the soil, remove the plastic film promptly. After emergence, ventilate to lower the temperature, prevent leggy growth and promote a sturdy hypocotyl.

2. Land preparation and planting: For seedless watermelon planting land, apply 3-5 cubic meters of high-quality farmyard manure, 20-30 kg of urea, 20-30 kg of diammonium phosphate and 20 kg of potassium sulfate per mu. Prepare the land finely and make beds. Choose a windless, sunny day for transplanting, planting 500-700 plants per mu, watering as you plant.

3. Fertilizer and water management: During the seedling stage of seedless watermelons, apply 5 kg of urea per mu. Do not water or fertilize during flowering and fruit setting. When the watermelons are about the size of a duck egg, apply 15-20 kg of urea and 15 kg of potassium sulfate per mu. In the late growth stage, spray 0.2% monopotassium phosphate on the leaves.

4. Hand pollination: Seedless watermelons use manual assisted pollination. At around 8 am, use male flowers of the pollinator variety that opened that day to pollinate female flowers. The earlier the pollination after flowering, the better, no later than 10 o'clock. Pollinate evenly and gently to avoid damaging the stigma.

5. Reasonable ripening: When the seedless watermelon fruit has reached full size but is not yet ripe, apply a 200 mg ethephon solution per kg of watermelon evenly along the surface of the melon once in the evening. Two days later, it can be harvested and sold, which can supply the market 3-5 days earlier than natural ripening.