What's with the seeds?

[FirstLight]

I have to ask this because I have noticed it dramatically in all my produce...

:tinfoilhat:

Almost every type of fruit I've seen this summer has seeds that are either non-viable or non-existent. Apples are just shriveled inside, peaches with the pits missing and what looks like a 'melted' center...
is this the evil genetic modifying of our food so that we CAN'T grow our own?
Been trying to save seeds from everything this year for future gardening ventures, and this is disturbing.
This isn't necessarily showing up in organic foods, though I am sure they stand the danger of cross pollenation and eventually being inviable too.

what's UP with this? I didn't buy "seedless" apples and peaches... they are supposedly California grown... but by who? Is this the evil Monsanto again?

[dipsydoodle]

1. Sure sounds like

terminators.x(

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Could it be a genetic mutation without the appropriate bee pollination

that has been lacking in the past two growing seasons?

[FirstLight]

3. Geez, i didn't even THINK about the bee connection!

you could very well be right, but if so...wouldn't it show across the board in organic foods as well?

This is just like someone 'melted' the internal structure of the fruit.

[tridim]

4. Are you actually eating the peaches with the melted pits?

I would take them back to the store.

[wildgarden]

5. local fruit

I am not aware of the use of the "terminator gene" in fruit seeds, but most commercially grown fruit is of a type suited to large scale, high fertilizer input agriculture. Also many fruit seeds will not grow out true to the parent for many reasons.

You might be better off purchasing small inexpensive fruit trees from local nurseries. Also if family or friends have fruit trees you could study up on grafting techniques and try your hand at propagating from twigs.

For veggies, start growing your own open-pollinated varieties and save seed from year to year. There's a lot of good seed saving info on the web.

[kestrel91316]

6. I have a tinfoilhat theory about the fruit. I have noticed for several years

now that I can buy perfectly gorgeous looking fruit at the store, take it home, and in a couple days when it seems to have reached the peak of perfection the insides are all brown and rotten. I am 51 and this was not something I EVER had seen in fruit until just a few years ago.

I think it is being irradiated without our knowledge - to give it a longer shelf life. And I think that the radiation kills pathogens on the surface and into the fruit a ways, but it doesn't penetrate to the center. So we see the rot begin INSIDE, where it normally would start on the surface.

Good fruit is really hard to come by. You can buy fruit that looks perfect outside, but it's rotten. If that isn't evil, I truly don't know what is.

[FirstLight]

7. the apples i cut for juicing are lik that!

they're the kind that come in the bag. I think you may be onto something. I never thought about irradiation. That explains why organics don't seem to be affected, maybe?

I seem to remember a few years back the FDA passed a law didn't they? they don't have to tell us if they do it, right?

[Wilber_Stool]

9. I see the same thing with onions.

I buy a three pound bag and within one week, they begin to get black rot. I used to store them for weeks years ago. Something is up.

[Kali]

10. sweet onions rot faster because of the sugar - try again later in the season

with regular yellow boiling onions - mine keep for weeks just fine

[Kali]

11. I don't know about apples but a common cause of this is too cold of storage

especially in peaches (I don't mean your fridge but the picker or wherehouse)

[Warpy]

8. Immature seeds signal that the fruit has been picked

while it is still quite green and artificially ripened at sales time.

Fruit rotting from the center out might have had the surface irradiated and simply been kept too long because the surface appearance was still good.

In any case, anyone who gets this needs to take it right back to the store, gas prices and all. Store produce managers need to know which wholesalers to avoid.

[Tumbulu]

12. Warpy is right! (nt)