The kids were eating a seedless watermelon today and I found a single black seed in it. I am confused.
I have a reasonable understanding of how a seedless watermelon is made. Diploid cross with Tetraploid creates a sterile Triploid. In theory all of the seeds in a seedless watermelon should abort early leaving you with those white empty non-viable seeds.
Occasionally seedless watermelons have a few normal looking black seeds like this. They are not hollow and certainly appear to be normal seeds. What is the story with these? I would love someone to explain it to me. Is it the loss or addition of a chromosome or something else entirely? How does it only occur to one or two seeds in every few watermelons?
I assume they are viable, but can someone confirm this please? If they are viable, what would be needed to pollinate them (diploid, tetraploid, self pollen)?