seedless grapes

[tracymort]

how do they grow more grapes when there are no seeds?

[incitatus]

They are propagated by taking cuttings.

[FionaS]

i have read that they are basically clones and that ALL clones are infertile. It's the same for many fruits, another example is Bananas which have no seeds here but if you eat them in Asia they have small black seeds in. I guess your average supermarket shopper finds seeds to much to swallow.

[Andromeda]

Fiona,
Well, in the sense that any offspring from asexual reproduction is a clone, then yes. A clone is just an offspring that shared all its dna / rna with its parent. And as they do not need to sexually reproduce, then they are infertile (fertility being strictly a sexual term).
In the case of seedless grapes and bananas this is not the natural state of the species and therefore could be said to be infertile. It is basically the whim of the shopper over here, who doesn't want nasty seeds in their fruit. Bananas (and other fruit, like cucumbers) are a bit different, as they do not last as long, are not as sweet and are more 'woody' if they are bred with seeds in.
Andy.

[mrsir]

Seedless grapes are produced through farming techniques such as grafting and cutting. One seed produces a vine that gives many grapes with many many more seeds, so the farmer needs only a few natural plants to propogate his seedless vinyard. I saw mention of bananas and it is surprising how people use their reasoning as scientific knowlege - as is the case with evolution - but no bananas are not modified to not produce seeds. This tree(plant) shoots out other banana trees from its base, not from seeds.