DW: YYYYEEEESSSS!!! Pocket watermelons!!!
A mother-daughter team of amateur plant breeders in Northern Virginia has grown watermelons no bigger than chicken eggs, and they taste just as good as the full-size version. High school researcher Delaney Raptis and her mother started the project in 2021 using a non-GMO chemical mutation technique, putting the plants through several generations of selective breeding to shrink the fruit from several kilograms down to somewhere between 80 and 200 grams.
Preliminary tests show the tiny melons still have their signature sweet flavor and red or orange flesh. The goal was always practical: standard watermelons are too large and vine-heavy to grow well in greenhouses or vertical farms, where space is at a premium. The miniature version would also cut down on food waste and could be a natural fit for single-serve markets.
Source: Oddity Central