Ever wondered how they produce the seeds you plant to grow those seedless
watermelons? Over in the rec.gardens.edible newsgroup there has been some
discussion about the process behind seedless melon seed production. Here
is one fascinating tidbit which might interest some in aus.gardens who
don't read the r.g.e group:

In the rec.gardens.edible group on Wed, 09 Mar 2005 Katra wrote:
You can also create your own seedless watermelons out of any
watermelon...

All you have to do is to catch the bloom on the first day and place a
seeding hormone (comes in a paste form) on the pistil in the female
flower and then bag the bloom to preven any insect pollinization.

I don't know the name of the hormone off the top of my head, hopefully
someone here does. I learned about this technique from my botany
proffesor back in community college when I worked for him in his
greenhouse.

kat

They are also talking about grafting one type of melon plant onto
another, saying it can be more straightforward than for fruit trees.
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)