It’s amazing what agricultural laboratories do to clone plants in Petri dishes. And therein lies a danger in such monoculture. An insidious disease can take hold in vast fields and wipe them out entirely. Genetic diversity is desireable despite the inconvenience and cost.
Seedless plants are not common, but they do exist naturally or can be manipulated by plant breeders without using genetic engineering techniques. No current seedless plants are genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Seedlessness to the plant is useless since it fails to produce offspring, that is why most seedless plants are propagated through grafting or cuttings (cucumber and watermelon being exceptions). However, it is a heritable trait carried on through pollen and maintained in the gene pool until the right parental combination again occurs to produce a plant with seedless fruit. [ https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/seedless-fruit-is-not-something-new — Michigan State University]
Seedless watermelons are hybrids created by cross-pollinating a male watermelon with a female watermelon flower. They were first produced by a plant geneticist named O.J. Eigsti in the 1940s.
Seedless cucumbers are “parthenocarpic” — the flowers transition into fruit production without any pollination. However, if pollen gets in the flower from a nearby standard pickle field, the fruit will develop with seeds.
garethkb415 Premium Member over 1 year ago
Pluggers only playact at being country folk for the aesthetic; they know nothing about agriculture.
Templo S.U.D. over 1 year ago
let’s not forget seedless grapes when on a vine
jmolay161 over 1 year ago
The original pluggers started out as country boys on farms!
Lord Flatulence Premium Member over 1 year ago
Hmm …
yoey1957 over 1 year ago
On another farming conundrum, I’ve separately ordered a chicken and an egg off of Amazon……I’ll let y’all know.
kelloggs2066 over 1 year ago
Bananas have a similar issue.
Almost all Banana trees come from cuttings.
PraiseofFolly over 1 year ago
It’s amazing what agricultural laboratories do to clone plants in Petri dishes. And therein lies a danger in such monoculture. An insidious disease can take hold in vast fields and wipe them out entirely. Genetic diversity is desireable despite the inconvenience and cost.
Homerville Premium Member over 1 year ago
Treeless orange groves.
juicebruce over 1 year ago
Nope … Never wondered about that one ;-)
david_42 over 1 year ago
Same place seedless bananas come from: clones!
jbrobo Premium Member over 1 year ago
The good orange fairy?
GreenT267 over 1 year ago
Seedless plants are not common, but they do exist naturally or can be manipulated by plant breeders without using genetic engineering techniques. No current seedless plants are genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Seedlessness to the plant is useless since it fails to produce offspring, that is why most seedless plants are propagated through grafting or cuttings (cucumber and watermelon being exceptions). However, it is a heritable trait carried on through pollen and maintained in the gene pool until the right parental combination again occurs to produce a plant with seedless fruit. [ https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/seedless-fruit-is-not-something-new — Michigan State University]
Seedless watermelons are hybrids created by cross-pollinating a male watermelon with a female watermelon flower. They were first produced by a plant geneticist named O.J. Eigsti in the 1940s.
Seedless cucumbers are “parthenocarpic” — the flowers transition into fruit production without any pollination. However, if pollen gets in the flower from a nearby standard pickle field, the fruit will develop with seeds.
ctolson over 1 year ago
Immaculate conception of course! God can do anything, but I often winder what happened with the Duck Billed Platypus.
Gent over 1 year ago
Eh me bearly waste time thinking about delicious fruits. Me just eats them.
ladykat over 1 year ago
I wonder the same thing.
g04922 over 1 year ago
GMO’s baby….. scary, but true.
tcayer over 1 year ago
I wonder why they sell “Cage Free” eggs. How do the yolks know if they’re in a cage or not?
Sean Fox over 1 year ago
Hey if they’re seedless how come im still going to seed no matter how many i eat . . .
chromosome Premium Member over 1 year ago
Not a dumb question… it represents sophisticating farming know-how.