If you are worried that seedless grapes are the result of some sort of genetic modification or that it means that the grapes cannot be organic, then read on.
Most commercial fruit is not grown from seeds, even when the fruit have seeds, they are grown from cuttings. (Interesting fact if you grow an apple tree from the seed, or pip, the resulting tree and fruit will not be the same variety as the original apple.) Growing from a cutting ensures the new plant will be genetically identical to the parent plant, giving you fruit with the same characteristics.
Grapes are no different to this, but how did we end up with seedless grapes in the first place?
Seedless grapes are actually as a result of a natural mutation. This prevented the young seeds in a grape from maturing and developing a hard coat and hence seeming seedless. Growers noticed this in the fruit and then cultivated these vines to replicate the seedless properties they had discovered.
Seedless grapes have actually been around for centuries but the first successful commercial cultivation was in the 1870’s by William Thompson, a Scottish immigrant, in California. William, imported a variety of grape from areas of modern Iran or Turkey. Working with local rootstock, in 1876 he was able to create a crop of thin-skinned, sweet, seedless grapes. He shared several cuttings with friends, including J.P. Onstott. From those cuttings, more cuttings were shared and by 1920 the Thompson seedless grape was the preferred raisin variety grape. This was the first commercialised seedless grape.
These grapes were initially used to produce sultanas and raisins, as it meant that the seeds didn’t need to be removed when the fruit was dried. It was only later on that they gained popularity as a table grape.
By the way, the Thompson seedless grapes, aren’t really ‘seedless’ – they have small undeveloped seeds that go unnoticed.