Pusa Bedana
An IARI triploid seedless watermelon — round to oval fruit with pink-red, seedless flesh, grown for the premium urban market. It needs a normal (diploid) variety planted alongside as a pollen source to set fruit.
Quick facts
- Type
- Triploid seedless (needs a pollenizer)
- Season
- Zaid / summer
- Maturity period
- First harvest ~95–100 days
- Expected yield
- 25–35 t/ha
- Suitable soil
- Sandy / light soil
- Disease resistance
- No special resistance claimed
- Release
- Released by ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi
Actual yield depends on sowing time, soil, irrigation, weather, seed quality and crop management.
About this variety
Pusa Bedana is a triploid (seedless) watermelon from ICAR-IARI, New Delhi, bred for the premium urban fresh market where seedless fruit fetches a higher price. The flesh is pink-red and free of hard seeds. Because a triploid produces no viable pollen of its own, a normal diploid variety must be interplanted — roughly one row in four, or one plant in three — as a pollen source, or almost no fruit will set. It matures at about 95–100 days and its seed, which is expensive, is bought fresh each year.
Should you pick this variety?
Choose Pusa Bedana if you sell to premium urban buyers who pay more for seedless fruit. You must also manage a pollenizer plan: a normal diploid variety interplanted at about one row in four, or one plant in three, or almost no fruit will set. The flesh is pink-red and free of hard seeds, it is ready at about 95–100 days, and the yield is 25–35 t/ha. The catches: the seed is expensive and fussy to germinate, so it is often raised as transplants, there is no special disease resistance, and you must buy fresh seed every year. Choose Kiran for higher yield at lower seed cost. Choose Sugar Baby for cheap nearby sales.
Sowing & cultivation
Advantages & considerations
Why farmers may choose it
- Seedless flesh, which earns a real premium in the urban fresh market
- Pink-red, sweet flesh; good consumer appeal
Things to consider
- Needs a diploid pollenizer variety interplanted (about 1 row in 4) or fruit will not set — a real planning and management requirement
- Triploid seed is expensive and germinates fussily; it is often raised as transplants
- No special disease resistance; hybrid seed bought fresh each year
Suitable regions
States this variety is recommended for — check locally, since a state can have more than one recommended zone.
- Delhi
- Punjab
- Haryana
- Uttar Pradesh
- Maharashtra
The pollenizer plan: one row in four, or one plant in three
Pusa Bedana cannot pollinate itself. A normal diploid watermelon beside it supplies the pollen. About one row in four, or one plant in three, must be that pollenizer.
Decide the layout before you sow. Note the pollenizer rows or plants on paper. Sow them so that they flower at the same time as Pusa Bedana, since pollen that arrives late does not help.
Count your income only from the seedless rows. A quarter of your rows, or a third of your plants, are pollenizer, so the seedless share of the field is smaller than it looks.
Where the planting material comes from
This is a hybrid, so seed kept from your own harvest will not breed true. The next crop comes up uneven in height, maturity and yield. Buy fresh certified seed every season and keep the bag tag until harvest.
How it compares with other varieties
Every Watermelon (Tarbooz) variety with a page on this site, side by side. The row for this page is highlighted.
| Variety | Best for | Maturity | Yield | States |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arka Jyoti | A long-proven F1 hybrid with 6–8 kg round, red-fleshed fruit for the general market and medium-to-distant transport | First harvest ~95 days | 35–45 t/ha | Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana |
| Arka Manik | A disease-resistant open-pollinated watermelon with a firm rind, for fields with high cucurbit disease pressure and long transport | First harvest ~95–100 days | 45–60 t/ha | Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Telangana |
| Arka Muthu | A dwarf, short-vine watermelon with 2.5–3 kg single-serve fruit, for close planting, raised-bed drip, small plots and protected cultivation | First harvest ~80–90 days | 35–45 t/ha at high density | Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra |
| Durgapura Meetha | A hardy, cheap open-pollinated watermelon for hot, dry north-west conditions and river-bed (diara) plantings | First harvest ~90 days | 25–35 t/ha | Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh |
| Kiran | A high-yielding F1 hybrid with large 10–12 kg oval fruit and a tough, striped rind, for big fields serving distant urban markets | First harvest ~90–95 days | 45–55 t/ha | Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat |
| Pusa Bedanathis page | A triploid seedless watermelon for the premium urban fresh market, grown with a diploid pollenizer | First harvest ~95–100 days | 25–35 t/ha | Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra |
| Sugar Baby | The most widely grown open-pollinated watermelon, small and sweet with cheap seed, for smallholders and river-bed plots selling to nearby markets | First harvest ~85–95 days | 20–30 t/ha | Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra |
Tools for this crop
The numbers you need next: how much seed to buy, whether the lot germinates, what the fertilizer bill looks like and what Watermelon (Tarbooz) is selling for.
- Seed Rate CalculatorHow much seed your Watermelon (Tarbooz) plot needs, corrected for the germination of the lot you bought.
- Germination CalculatorTest 100 seeds from the bag before sowing and see whether the lot is fit to sow.
- Seed Variety FinderFilter every Watermelon (Tarbooz) variety on this site by state, season, duration and soil.
- Fertilizer CalculatorTurn the NPK recommendation for Watermelon (Tarbooz) into bags of urea, DAP and MOP for your field size.
- Crop CalendarMonth-by-month sowing, weeding, irrigation and harvest dates for Watermelon (Tarbooz) in your state.
- Crop Profit CalculatorPut your seed, labour and input costs against the yield you expect from this variety.
- Mandi Price CheckerToday's Watermelon (Tarbooz) rate in your nearest mandi, before you fix a price with a trader.
Subsidy and government support
Schemes that help with the cost of Watermelon (Tarbooz) seed or planting material. Rules and the application route are on each scheme page.
Frequently asked questions
What happens if I plant Pusa Bedana without a pollenizer?
Almost no fruit will set. A triploid plant makes no viable pollen of its own, so it needs a normal diploid variety interplanted as a pollen source, about one row in four or one plant in three. Plan this before you buy seed and sowing dates, and do not drop the pollenizer to save land.
How much of my field goes to the pollenizer?
At one row in four, a quarter of the rows are pollenizer. At one plant in three, a third of the plants are. So only about three-quarters of your rows, or two-thirds of your plants, are seedless Pusa Bedana. Work your income on that share, not on the whole field.
Why is Pusa Bedana raised as transplants?
Triploid seed is expensive and germinates fussily. Raising seedlings in trays or pots lets you look after each seed and plant only the ones that came up well. That protects your costly seed. Buy only as much as your pollenizer plan needs.
Is seedless worth it compared with Kiran?
Pusa Bedana gives 25–35 t/ha and Kiran 45–55 t/ha, and you also pay more for seed and give land to a pollenizer. So Pusa Bedana only pays if the seedless premium in your urban market is large enough to cover all that. Ask your buyer the price per kilo for seedless and for ordinary melons before you plant.
Can I save seed from Pusa Bedana?
No. The seed is bought fresh each year, and a seedless fruit has no seed to save. The seed comes from a special cross, and it is expensive. Buy it from a trusted seller, keep the packet label and ask for the germination test date.