Disease, Pollination Research Bolsters Watermelon Harvest
Research from North Carolina State Univ. on flower production and disease resistance in watermelon varieties should help bolster seedless watermelon harvests for farmers.
Seedless watermelons are more popular than seeded watermelons, making them a more profitable crop for farmers. But the flowers of seedless watermelon plants must be fertilized with pollen from the male flowers of seeded watermelon plants, because seedless plants do not produce genetically viable pollen. This is a problem, because seeded watermelon plants take up space, nutrients and water that farmers would rather devote to seedless plants. Furthermore, farmers have to take steps to ensure that they don’t mix up the seedless and seeded watermelons at harvest time – and find a market for those less valuable seeded watermelons.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2012/10/disease-pollination-research-bolsters-watermelon-harvest
