Seedless Grapes. Are they naturally seedless, and if not how are the seeds extracted.?

Question

I know this is rather a strange question, but its one of these things you sometimes wonder about!

Answer 1

Excellent Question!!!
Seedless fruits are something of a paradox, as fruits are usually defined in a botanical sense as mature ovaries containing seeds. Among the widely grown seedless fruits are grapes, numerous Citrus fruits (oranges, lemons, limes, etc.), and bananas. Seedless watermelons have only recently been developed -by a Japanese professor Kihara. Seedless fruits are commercially valuable as seeds are considered a nuisance by consumers and seedless fruits are easier to eat and thus preferred over otherwise similar seeded fruits. Most commercially produced seedless fruits have been developed from plants whose fruits normally contain numerous relatively large hard seeds that are distributed throughout the flesh of the fruit; there would be little commercial benefit to a seedless peach or apple. Similarly, fruits with small and unobtrusive seeds, such as strawberries and kiwi fruits, would be little improved by being seedless. And in species whose seed is the commercial or culinary product, such as sesame, most legumes, or grains of all kinds, seedless fruits would be considered a serious flaw.

Seedless fruits can develop in one of two ways: either the fruit develops without any pollination (parthenocarpy), or pollination triggers fruit development but the ovules or embryos abort without producing mature seeds. Seedless fruits are commonly produced on triploid plants, whose three sets of chromosomes prevent meiosis from taking place and thus do not produce fertile gametes. Such plants can arise by spontaneous mutation or by hybridization between diploid and tetraploid individuals of the same or different species.

A common question is how, if they do not produce seeds, such plants can be propagated. In most cases the plants are propagated vegetatively from cuttings, by grafting, or in the case of bananas, from "pups" (offsets). In such cases the resulting plants are genetically identical clones. Oddly enough, seedless watermelons are grown from seeds. These seeds are produced by crossing diploid and tetraploid strains of watermelon, with the resulting seeds producing sterile triploid plants. Fruit development is triggered by pollination and these plants must be grown alongside a diploid strain to provide pollen.

One disadvantage of most seedless crops is that, as genetically identical clones, a pest or disease that can harm one individual can harm every individual of that clone. For example, the vast majority of commercially produced bananas come from a single clone, the 'Cavendish' cultivar, which is currently threatened worldwide by a newly discovered fungal disease to which it is highly susceptible.
Seedlessness is a highly desirable trait in table grape selection, and seedless cultivars now make up the overwhelming majority of table grape plantings. Because grapevines are vegetatively propagated by cuttings, the lack of seeds does not present a problem for reproduction. It is, however, an issue for breeders, who must either use a seeded variety as the female parent or rescue embryos early in development using tissue culture techniques.

There are several sources of the seedlessness trait, and essentially all commercial cultivars get it from one of three sources: 'Thompson Seedless', 'Russian Seedless', and 'Black Monukka'. All are members of Vitis vinifera.

Answer 2

Technically seedless grapes are the first kind of GM food. They grow like that and were selectively fertilised to have very small seeds in them. If you look closely you will see smaller seeds inside the grape. So calling them seedless is probably false advertising!!

Answer 3

If you open the grape you will see that there is a tiny seed in the middle. I dont think they're seedless just a tiny pip.

Answer 4

yeah, they're real, they grow that way. Once they find a seedless grape they propagate them through cutting a piece of the plant and grafting it to the root of another variety. They've been doing this for centuries, in various plants.

Answer 5

Naturally seedless? No. Engineered to grow without producing seeds? Yes.
No one takes the seeds out, they were designed (by scientists) to grow that way.

Answer 6

They are naturally seedless. The vines are propagated buy cuttings (IE the plants are all part of the parent)

Answer 7

they are not extracted but rather are bread to have no or little seeds.

Answer 8

Oh God, someone's realised ... ok, it's me. I admit it. I am the seed sucker.

Answer 9

Its natural, just like watermellons....Yummy

Answer 10

excellent question ! i don't know.