The seed (if that’s what is called) of the mango is huge and takes up most of the weight and volume of the fruit. Wouldn’t it be great to have a seedless version like they did with watermelon and grapes? Why is it different for mango ?
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The seed (if that’s what is called) of the mango is huge and takes up most of the weight and volume of the fruit. Wouldn’t it be great to have a seedless version like they did with watermelon and grapes? Why is it different for mango ?
They exist. Sindhu is a seedless mango variety, for instance.
Well, I was going to say the seed of a mango is called a stone, but as I tried to double-check myself, I ran into folks calling it a pit or a kernel.
Either way, seedless watermelons are filled with LIES.:smallannoyed:
You have to pick the right watermelons. It may be a regional thing, too... Plenty of good seedless watermelons in TX. They need to have a yellowish "bald" spot, and they need to be heavy for their size.
I have texture issues and really don't like things with seeds in them.
I also find mangoes and kiwis to be "fizzy" in my mouth, so I don't care for them.
In short, they need to be ripe. In a sense it is a regional thing as watermelons are grown in TX so you can find local, actually ripe fruits to buy. Any long-range transported fruit are harvested earlier so that they are harder and can survive the transport. They are ripened artificially with ethylene (as far as I remember they still use it) before being put on display in stores, but it is not the same as the real thing. Be it watermelons, tomatoes or strawberries there is a serious difference in taste.
Usually seedless variants of fruits loose more then just their seeds - at least in my experience they tend to loose also a lot of character and depth.
Since mangos are much less "pick up and eat" compared to, say, grapes or even water melons I'm not sure if there would be that much demand for a type of mango that might be somewhat easier to work with but is of a (presumably) lesser quality. If you want a hassle-free mango and do not care too much about quality canned mangos are an already existing option.
To pick up on what Zombimode said...
You have to choose what traits to breed for. If you emphasize small seeds, then you're not emphasizing taste or shelf-stability. If you emphasize taste, you're not emphasizing small seeds, and so on. Most wild fruits were at least somewhat selecting for taste because they wanted animals to pick them.
If you don't breed for taste, you'll end up with something like the modern strawberry, which looks good in the supermarket for a long time but doesn't taste nearly as good as it used to.