Why don’t we have any Seedless Pomegranate?- The seeds are the main edible part of a Pomegranate. The seed cover or the delicate juicy flesh is the prime edible portion. It cannot form without the seeds so technically you can’t have pomegranate without seeds.
Now some of you may ask- How do some sellers claim they have the seedless Pomegranate? Yes, It’s perfectly alright for marketing to advertise such products. Although none of them are true seedless. Most seedless fruits especially pomegranates do have seeds but in reduced size and stature. Either their size is reduced or they have developed to become soft. The hardness of these seeds is the real concern that usually bothers every one of us. So if you get something soft easy to chew then it’s good to say it is seedless. No matter whether it has seeds or not the term seedless not always satisfies botanical terms. It is a layman term to state any fruit with the least possible seeds.
True seedless fruits can only develop either by vigorous selective breeding or any accidental mutation in the plants. That’s why we have a true seedless orange – The novel Orange. A natural Mexican orange plant grows it in the 1800s. One branch with accidental mutation results in these seedless oranges. It was further bred and propagated throughout the globe. Therefore, Technically, it is possible to have seedless fruits as pomegranates. you can breed it Although this is not an easy task.
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Is There any Seedless Pomegranate Available in the market?
The answer depends on what you are looking for. If you want a technically correct answer then-No There is no seedless pomegranate to date. Those claiming seedless pomegranate are either soft seeded fruits or fruits with relatively smaller seeds.
Many Research has been done to determine whether seedless pomegranate is possible or not. The result suggests that it is technically possible but not without deforming the actual structure of the pomegranate we like.
If you develop fruit or pomegranate without seeds the whole structure will change. The seeds are the part of the attraction, the edible portion of the fruits. Also, the flesh that yields the sweet juice forms along with the seed. It cannot form without successful fertilization.
Pomegranate fruit is a complex structure in itself. It is not a true fruit instead it consists of several parts altogether in one body. So if you remove the seed, it will not become the fruit at least for simple understanding.
Still, you can find some so-called seedless pomegranate in the store. Those fruits are not truly seedless. They produce soft chewable seeds. This modification satisfies the market need hence those fruits are advertised as seedless pomegranates.
Can You Get seedless Pomegranate?
No, You can’t get a truly seedless pomegranate. It is not possible to this day. There are many different variants of pomegranate are available in the market with seedless names. Although none of them is 100% seedless.
They are the result of selective breeding of 1000s of years to get the possible soft chewable seeds. Therefore, You can have Pomegranate with sweet juicy flesh and a soft easy to chew seed. These so-called seedless pomegranates are not new as per the concept. There are available records for 1000-2000 years of soft seeded sweet pomegranate in many countries. This fruit was a delicacy for the royals. They demand their gardeners to breed something more comfortable to eat without hard seeds. So as per demand, those ancient garden experts breed pomegranate varieties with relatively soft seed and juicy thick flesh.
Countries like China, India, Israel, and many more have a variety of these seedless pomegranates available in local markets.
Why Don’t we have seedless pomegranates?
Seed is the main edible part of a Pomegranate. We the soft juicy flesh that surrounds these seeds. This flesh cannot form without the seed. It develops differently from oranges or bananas. that’s why we can have seedless oranges or bananas but no pomegranate can be truly seedless.
In nature plants without seeds have the least chances of survival. They cannot evolve new characters. In this way, they are prone to perish in every modifying disease. Ultimately most plants without seeds will extinct or die to their last population. This is a common problem of modern bananas as even a single disease spread can wipe out an entire crop from a continent within a year. And this is true in recent studies. These plants cannot develop immunity to fight these diseases as they can’t evolve and amend new characters into their offspring. Therefore, no plant complies with the demand to yield truly seedless fruits in nature. It’s not good for their survival.
Although we can do so by selective breeding a plant. Only by allowing certain traits to their offspring new pomegranate varieties without seed can be developed. Still, you will need seeds to do so. Therefore, it is not possible to date.
Read: Is Coconut a Fruit or Seed?
Is it Possible to develop a Seedless Pomegranate?
Yes, It is possible to develop a comparable seedless pomegranate. You can achieve it Although this is not an easy task. We have to start with a relative trait to achieve the desired results. Foremost, an existing fruit with a similar character should be found. Once you have a pomegranate with fewer seeds. Then by selective breeding, we can get a near seedless pomegranate variety.
Possibly you may not get 100% seedless pomegranate. Though you will get something close enough to fulfill the market need. T achieve this you have to overcome various factors other than finding a relatively similar pomegranate species.
You have to deal with selective breeding in perfect isolation to discard any chance of sample damage. After fertilizing the flower you have to wait until it becomes a mature pomegranate. Once the pomegranate is ready then you have to collect its seeds and regrow them individually to observe the final outcome.
Nearly 40% of those seeds will never germinate. 30-40% of the rest of germinated seeds will never reach their maturity. So you will have only a handful of healthy seedlings to conduct the experiments. Care for these seedlings until they mature and start blooming. They will bloom and yield fruit after 2 to 3 years in an ideal case.
Once they bloom and produce the fruits, check out the results. Make sure the fruits have fewer seeds than their parent. If not then move on to the next plant and continue this process.
Mark those plants having pomegranate with fewer seeds. They will become the parents of 2nd generation hybridization. Again repeat all of these processes with selected plants and wait for a few more years.
Possibly after 4 to 6 successive generations, you will get something close to your need. After 4 or 5 generations of selective breeding, you will get pomegranates with the least possible seeds.
Final Words
We don’t have any Seedless pomegranate till this date coz it’s not possible to develop this fruit without any seed. It is simply out of law in nature to breed pomegranate without seeds. These seedless pomegranates available in the store are actually fruits with soft edible seeds. The seeds are soft and easy to chew hench the promoters advertise these as seedless although they are not. Do you think you can breed a seedless pomegranate? Yes, then good luck, and I’ll wait for your results until the next decade.
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