Watermelon, All Sweet (100% Heirloom/Non-Hybrid/Non-GMO)

• Plant produces good yields of 25 lb watermelons.
  
  - Has bright red flesh
  
  - Perfect for making Watermelon Candy (see how to here)
  
  - Extremely flavorful and extra sweet with a tough rind (helps keep it fruit from bruising)
  
  - Perfect variety for any sized home garden (even market growers)
  
  
• Day to Maturity | 90 days
  
  
• Best Months to Plant  |  [April - June]  Watermelons are heat-loving plants that need lots of sun. They grow on a long vine, so make sure to give them plenty of space to roam around.
  

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Where do Seedless Watermelons come from?

When a run-of-the-mill watermelon and a souped-up frankenmelon love each other very much, they come together and make a baby seedless wundermelon.

Seedless watermelons are a lot like mules – sterile hybrids formed by crossing genetically incompatible parents. Normal, seeded watermelons are diploid (have 2 sets of chromosomes) just like us, with one set from mom and one from dad. When the two combine, their seeds grow into a plant that looks like a combination of its parents. Just like us.

But sometimes farmers treat some of their watermelons with colchicine, a chemical that allows chromosomes to duplicate but prevents them from splitting into two cells. This creates a tetraploid – a super-squash with four complete sets of chromosomes. The fruit isn’t genetically modified; cells contain the same DNA as standard melons – just twice as many.

Next, the farmer introduces this new tetraploid watermelon to a regular melon. If they hit it off, they’ll produce a triploid melon with 3 sets of chromosomes. This offspring will grow up to be a normal looking vine that produces flowers and fruit. But when it tries to reproduce, the chromosomes can’t divide properly. This means that real seeds never develop.