The female flower is always the prime role player in fruit setting, which applies to every plant variety, including watermelon.
Some other identifying factors with pollination ideas are given in the article. So scroll down and take it all.
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Do You Need 2 Watermelon Plants To Get Fruit?
Watermelon has always been a delicious treat during summer, offering oval to spherical fruits around 25 cm in diameter.
The fruits develop from the female flower after the pollen in the male flower of the same plant pollinates it.
Also, watermelons are monoecious with unisexual male and female flowers on the same plant. Here, the female flower bears fruits while the male produces pollen.
However, if you plan to grow seedless watermelons, you might have to plant 2 different tetraploid and diploid plants together to get the fruit.
You can grow 2 or more watermelon plants if you want to increase the chance of pollination and fruit formation.
How Can You Tell If A Watermelon Flower Is Male Or Female?
Given the morphology of the watermelon flower, both males and females have yellow petals over green calyx with the same arrangement.
However, the two are distinct. So you can tell if a watermelon flower is a male or female by looking at the same flower structure more closely and going in-depth.
| Male Watermelon Flower | Female Watermelon Flower |
|---|---|
| They are the first group of season flower to appear. | They appear at least a week after the appearance male flower. |
| The male flower is smaller in size. | The female flower is larger than male. |
| The main part is their pollen producing anther and stamen. | The main part is their three stigmas that receives the pollen. |
| The base lack swollen part and have a thin green stem. | The base is swollen due to bulge ovary that looks like a tiny watermelon. |
How Do You Pollinate A Watermelon Female Flower?
Since the male and female parts are on different flowers, the pollination is usually cross-breeding, where honeybees are the prime pollinator.
A single bee needs to make at least 8 trips to carry 500 to 1000 pollen grains from male to female for successful pollination. Meanwhile, seedless watermelon requires about 21 visits.
Take a cotton swab or paintbrush and find a mature male flower with enough pollen. Start collecting the pollen using the swab.
Then, rub the pollen holding paintbrush or cotton swab over the female flower’s stigma. Repeat the process several times till you ensure it is a success.
Usually, the watermelon fruit takes about 35 days to ripen after the fruit has been set.
Take the video for reference!
On the other hand, you can even establish a bee colony nearby the plantation area if you do not have time for manual pollination.
From Editorial Team
Additional Tips!
A watermelon fruit does not have a tag of being male or female as it is a flower with gender differentiation.
Also, if there are no female flowers, treat it externally with ethylene inhibitors which will aid in the appearance of the first female flower in a monoecious cultivar.
