Seeded or Seedless Watermelons

Courtesy, pdpics.com/photo/2257-food-watermelon/
I thought I'd share something from my vast research into watermelons. I say vast because I buy a watermelon at least twice a month from May to September.

The quality of melons is inconsistent. That's my first observation.

Melons grown in your home state usually taste better than "imported" melons.

Seeded watermelons are consistently sweeter than seedless varieties.

What Exactly Is a Seedless Watermelon

It's a sterile hybrid of a traditional watermelon. That means it can't produce mature, aka fertile, black seeds. So any seeds you find in a seedless variety are only immature hollow shells--these are the small white seeds you see in these watermelons.

Seedless watermelons aren't GMO, but they're chemically modified to create a melon with 33 chromosomes instead of 44. Hmmm. That's seems GMO to me, but by strictest definition I guess it's not.

Which Is Better

Getting back to the seeded versus seedless question, the old-fashioned seeded variety always beats out the seedless when I've bought them. The seeded variety is pinker to brilliant red, juicy, and have a texture that's toothsome.

The seedless ones I've always had aren't nearly as juicy and they're often either mushy or too firm.

Takeaway Truth

If you consistently have had seedless melons that are superior to a seeded one, tell me about it in comments. I'd be interested to know the grower and geographic location. (That's usually on a sticker on the melon.)

Have a wonderful weekend--seeded or seedless!

4 comments:

  1. Although I think seeded ones are sweeter (and probably have a better consistency), I still buy seedless because I'm pretty lazy and don't want to mess with the seeds.

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  2. Understandable. I remember eating watermelon on my grandparents' porch and spitting the seeds off into the yard. *LOL*

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  3. When I was a bare-footed urchin in Missouri, lo these many years past, the best watermelons--a version called Rattlesnake because the pattern on the rind resembled a snakeskin--came from the bootheel of Missouri. These days, it's hard to find anything like that and the seedless melons are pale, both literally and figuratively, by comparison. Your research is correct; seeded melons are the very best!

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    1. When I was a kid, lo these many years past, watermelons were enormous. It was nothing to find one at the local store that required a big strong man to carry it. What happened to all those big melons?

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