Saturday 8 October 2016

Blue watermelon seeds do NOT exist


Blue fleshed watermelons look delicious and amazing and are for sale all over ebay for very little money with free postage.  Many of these listing have sold thousands of these seeds, are located locally in Australia, and have 100% positive reviews.  It is unfortunate that blue watermelons do NOT exist.

I wrote a post on blue and black strawberries and how ebay sellers get positive reviews, you can search for that post using the search function at the top right of this page.

Selling things that do not exist is illegal.  Ebay has reporting facilities, I know people who report these fraudulent seed listings to ebay every time they see them, but nothing ever happens.  Hopefully this post will help someone not get taken advantage of by criminals.

Watermelons come in a handful of different flesh colours including red, yellow, orange and white, some taste better than others.  Unfortunately there are a bunch of thieves out there who have decided to steal from people with photoshop images of red watermelons.

All of the following pictures were found on actual ads for things that don't exist.  They are not my pictures. 

Blue Watermelon Seeds
Blue watermelons do NOT exist.  They look amazing in these pictures, but unfortunately it is a picture of a red watermelon that has been photo shopped.  There was even a well known hoax about 'Japanese Moon Watermelons'.  Don't be fooled by criminals, they do not exist.  Watermelons have never looked like this and unless there are massive leaps forward in GM technology watermelons will never look like this.  Do NOT buy seeds of blue watermelons.
Blue watermelons do NOT exist
Blue watermelon looks delicious but do NOT exist

Purple Watermelon Seeds
They look great don't they, it is too bad that they do NOT exist.  There are no varieties of purple fleshed watermelons.  Yellow, orange, white and red all exist, but not purple.  If you look closely you may notice that the purple wedge is the exact same photo (with a different colour) to the blue watermelon wedge.  Do NOT buy seeds for purple watermelons.
Purple watermelons look great, but do NOT exist
Purple watermelons do NOT exist, I dare say they are selling all red watermelon seeds

Green Watermelon Seeds
It seems reasonably that they may exist as we have other green fleshed melons such as honey dew.  Unfortunately there are no green when ripe watermelons available to home growers.  Do NOT buy seeds of green watermelons.
Edit to add: I was wrong on green watermelons.  I have heard that there are a few US breeders working towards green flesh watermelons.  I am not sure if they have stabilised any lines yet, and from what I gather they are not available to home growers.  These are not currently available in Australia, and possibly never will be.  Even knowing this, you should not buy green watermelon seeds from ebay.  

Green fleshed watermelon - don't by seeds for these


Mixed coloured watermelon seeds
Any time you see pictures like this where they have a mix of different seeds and they include anything that does not exist, do NOT buy from them.  While white watermelons and the orange/yellow ones do exist why would you think they will send them to you?  If the seller is happy to lie about the others existing to get a sale why would they not simply just send you seed of red watermelons from a supermarket?  Do NOT buy seeds from someone if anything they list does not exist.
Blue and Green do not exist

Square Watermelon Seeds
Wow, where do I even begin... Square watermelons do kind of exist, if you go to Japan you will see them for sale in the markets.  But watermelons don't grow square without intervention.  Let me explain briefly.

As the tiny fruit grows you can place a special box around it, as it grows the fruit will mold to that shape.  You can even buy molds that are heart shaped or shaped like faces or mice etc.  Feel free to buy watermelon seeds from someone who is not a thief and use these molds to create square watermelons, but do NOT fund these ebay thieves as it encourages them to steal from other people.  If you want seeds of an unknown variety of watermelon why not just buy a watermelon from the market and use its seeds?

Some thieves are outright claiming that they are selling "square watermelon" seeds.  Others, like the one below, are implying that you will grow square watermelons but are not explicitly saying it in the ad.  Nowhere in their ad do they say that the watermelon will grow round unless molded properly.  At no point in the ad do they mention molds or where to buy them.  It is still theft as they are intentionally misleading people, it is still just as immoral and just as illegal.

If you are the criminal responsible for this ad, feel free to write a comment below and try to justify your deception.

They may have free postage and be based in Australia but that doesn't mean they are not thieves.  Let's face it, even people in Australia lock their door when they leave the house.  Who would have thought, we have thieves in Australia too!  Do NOT buy seeds of square watermelons.
Our friendly Australian thieves are implying their seeds will grow square fruit
Watermelon molds, pretty cool

Tiny Watermelons
This is another half truth designed to trick people and steal their money.  The picture in the hand is not of a watermelon but instead is Melothria scabra.  It is commonly called 'Mexican Sour Gherkin' or 'mouse melon' or 'cucamelon'.  They are green inside and taste nothing like a watermelon.

The picture inset on the lower right is of a large watermelon cut open.  They are implying that if you cut open the Melothria scabra that it will look like a watermelon.  Who knows what seeds you will get sent if you were to send money to these ebay thieves.

While you can buy seeds of Melothria scabra please only do so from a genuine seller and not from someone dodgy like this and try to avoid buying seeds from ebay ever.  Do NOT buy seeds of mini watermelons.
The fruit in the hand is a Melothria scabra, they are NOT red inside

These mini melons are no more real than these kiwifruit kiwi birds (no you can NOT buy seeds of them)
Multi coloured watermelons
Multi coloured watermelons do NOT exist.  Please don't waste your money by buying anything from anyone who tries to sell you such things.


Buyer Beware
Do NOT fund these criminals and encourage them to steal from other people.  Do NOT buy from them and hope to get something good with the ridiculous notion that you will at least get watermelon seeds.  These ebay thieves will send you watermelon seed, and they will likely grow,  but they will all be red fleshed.  This kind of thing is legally known as theft by deception.

If you want un-named watermelon seeds for cheap go to the market, buy a watermelon, and sow those seeds.  That way you will get cheap seeds and be able to eat the watermelon.

There are other fake watermelon seeds for sale on ebay.  Just because I have not listed the fake colour does not mean I am implying that it does exist.  Please research anything you buy BEFORE you give anyone your money.

The picture below shows a decent representation of the different colours that watermelons come in.  Feel free to buy these colours, but please try not to buy them from Ebay if you can find them somewhere else.  If people can sell things on ebay that don't exist, they can also sell things that do exist that they don't actually have.
Watermelons, all of these colours DO exist
Stock images on ebay
If you see seeds for sale on ebay that uses stock images, do NOT buy from them.

Perhaps, like the above examples, the thing that they are selling does not even exist.  There are literally dozens of different fake seeds for sale on ebay, many use stock images, very few bother to manipulate the image themselves.  I heard a story of one person who bought fake seed in bulk and were on-selling it.  They probably meant no harm, but the fact that they used a stock image should have warned buyers to keep clear.

If they are using a stock image there is a chance they have bought actual seeds in bulk of something they have never grown and are on-selling that.  You should not be funding these people either.  Even if they are selling real seeds, the fact that they have not grown them means that you do not want to be funding them.

11 comments:

  1. would love for you to do some thing on the fake blue lilies being sold online and other fake fruits and veggies

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  2. Hi Windwalker,

    When I get some spare time I should write a few more of these as there are so many fake ebay seeds out there, hopefully I can prevent at elast a few people from being taken advantage of by these scams. It is amazing how much money the ebay thieves make from selling seeds of things that do not exist.

    It is difficult in the gardening world to know what exists and what doesn't unless you see it with your own eyes.

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  3. Thanks for this write up / heads up.

    I saw the seeds on EBay and wondered, "I wonder how these taste. I'll look for a blogger who might've grown 'em."

    This entry was one of the top Google links when I googled for it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Topher,

      Thank you for the kind words. I am so glad that this post is working! Hopefully it helps a lot of other people not be taken advantage of.

      Delete
  4. Hi i want to order sone seeds how can i contact you?

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    Replies
    1. You can order seeds or plants by emailing me. There is a 'contact form' over on the right hand side of the page. Just be sure to double check your email address is correct otherwise I can't reply.

      Delete
  5. I was wondering what the purple watermelon tasted like. Glad I found this site.

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  6. Green fleshed watermelons do not exist in the form that is shown. But the Egusi (the wild melon that the watermelon descends from) CAN have green flesh (studies have been done to prove the green is chlorophyll.) So in THEORY a green fleshed watermelon IS possible, it just hasn't been created yet. The pictures however are indeed fakes.

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  7. Also while no watermelon is anywhere near as tiny as the Mexican sour gherkin (I tend to avoid using the "cucamelon" term, as that is also used for carosello type melons [members of the Cucumis melo or true melon species used like cucumbers. {The Armenian cucumber is a classic example}]) there ARE such things as minimelons. One (which I have grown) is called the Costa Rican Fine Rind and was discovered in Costa Rica by Joe Simcox. It produces melons about the size of a baseball. There is also something called the Limbang Midget watermelon, which makes fruits about 1.5 pounds and hails from New Guinea.

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  8. Thanks for sharing this informative information about Watermelon seeds with us. It's very helpful. Keep it up!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks for sharing this informative information about Watermelon Seeds with us. It's very helpful. Keep it up!

    ReplyDelete