An Additional Seed Length Class in Watermelon

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Cucurbit Genetics Cooperative Report 3:38 (article 21) 1980

B. B. Rhodes
Edisto Experiment Station, Blackville, SC 29817

Poole, Grimball and Porter (1) reported digenic control of seed length in watermelon. A ratio of 9 medium (10 mm mean length): 3 long (13 mm mean length) : 4 short (6 mm mean length) was reported. The range of seed lengths for the short parents was 4.5-7.5 mm, the range for the medium parents was 7.5-11.5 mm, and the range for the long parents was 11.5 to 16.5. A small-seeded melon was obtained from the USDA Vegetable Lab in Charleston labeled W 941 with an apparent origin in Hungary or Romania.

The mean length of seed for the ‘Coconut Melon’ was 3.8 mm; the seed length of selected watermelon varieties is given in Table 1. Of the varieties measured, a difference of 0.7 mm existed between ‘Sunshade’ and ‘Chris Cross’ seed and a difference of 1.8 mm between ‘Sugar Bush’ and ‘Market Midget’ seed. The gap between ‘Sugar Baby’ and ‘Coconut Melon’ was 3.2 mm. ‘Coconut Melon’ was 2.2 mm shorter than the mean for the short-seeded variety used by Poole et al. (1). The seed length class of ‘Coconut Melon’ has remained constant for three generations.

Table 1. Seed length of watermelon cultivars.z

Cultivar

Length (mm)

Cultivar

Length (mm)
Florida Giant 14.2 Charleston Gray 11.5
Blackstone 14.1 Congo 11.2
Smokylee 13.6 Sugar Bush 11.1
Texas Golden 13.3 Market Midget 9.3
Garrisonian 13.0 Dixie Queen 8.8
Stone Mountain 12.9 Crimson Sweet 8.7
Grahoma 12.6 Improved Peacock 8.3
Tom Watson 12.6 Winter Queen 8.2
Jubilee 12.5 Supersweet 8.0
Wondermelon 12.5 Kengarden 7.9
Ice Cream 12.5 Royal Charleston 7.5
Tendersweet 12.5 Allsweet 7.5
Sunshade 12.3 Sugar Baby 7.0
Chris Cross 11.6 Coconut Melon 3.8

z Ten seeds were measured with vernier calipers to the nearest half mm.

Literature Cited

  1. Poole, C. F., P. C. Grimball and D. R. Porter. 1941. Inheritance of seed characters in water melon. J. Agr. Res. 63: 433-456.