Watermelons

Citrullus lanatus is a plant species in the family Cucurbitaceae, a vine-like flowering plant originating in West Africa. It is cultivated for its fruit. The subdivision of this species into two varieties, watermelons and citron melons, originated with the erroneous synonymization of Citrullus lanatus Matsum. & Nakai and Citrullus vulgaris Schrad. by L.H. Bailey in 1930. Molecular data including sequences from the original collection of Thunberg and other relevant type material, show that the sweet watermelon and the bitter wooly melon Citrullus lanatus Matsum. & Nakai are not closely related to each other. Since 1930, thousands of papers have misapplied the name Citrullus lanatus Matsum. & Nakai for the watermelon, a

Watermelons are tropical or subtropical plants and need temperatures higher than about 25 °C (77 °F) to thrive. On a garden scale, seeds are usually sown in pots under cover and transplanted into well-drained sandy loam with a pH between 5.5 and 7, and medium levels of nitrogen.

Major pests of the watermelon include aphids, fruit flies and root-knot nematodes. In conditions of high humidity, the plants are prone to plant diseases such as powdery mildew and mosaic virus.[20] Some varieties often grown in Japan and other parts of the Far East are susceptible to fusarium wilt. Grafting such varieties onto disease-resistant rootstocks offers protection.[11]

Seedless watermelon

The US Department of Agriculture recommends using at least one beehive per acre (4,000 m2 per hive) for pollination of conventional, seeded varieties for commercial plantings. Seedless hybrids have sterile pollen. This requires planting pollinizer rows of varieties with viable pollen. Since the supply of viable pollen is reduced and pollination is much more critical in producing the seedless variety, the recommended number of hives per acre (pollinator density) increases to three hives per acre (1,300 m2 per hive). Watermelons have a longer growing period than other melons, and can often take 85 days or more from the time of transplanting for the fruit to mature.[21]

Farmers of the Zentsuji region of Japan found a way to grow cubic watermelons by growing the fruits in metal and glass boxes and making them assume the shape of the receptacle.[22] The cubic shape was originally designed to make the melons easier to stack and store, but cubic watermelons may be triple the price of normal ones, so appeal mainly to wealthy urban consumers.[22] Pyramid-shaped watermelons have also been developed and any polyhedral shape may potentially be used.[23]

nd a proposal to conserve the name with this meaning was accepted by the relevant nomenclatural committee and confirmed at the International Botanical Congress in Shenzhen in China in 2017.