Bigger isn’t always better. At least went it comes to watermelons, the summer treat that nearly everyone loves. The tasty fruit can be eaten in a variety of ways including: by the slice, as a smoothie addition and even as a way to sweeten up your salad. They are even used as a bowl for certain summery cocktail mixes where friends can gather around and soak up the sun while sipping through a straw. The growth of the fruit’s reputation has spiked, but in China, the growing fruit has had detrimental effects.
Unknown to China farmers, they had been using a fertilizer that contained a chemical called forchlorfenuron. The chemical has the power to expand the size of a watermelon by 20% at a more rapid pace, which ultimately leads to greater profits. At least that is what the fertilizer company thought.
When farmers had started to see their melons breaking in half and taking on a shape that was absent from their natural form, they were alerted. Even the taste and texture was altered from its original state. Farmers saw an abnormal amount of white seeds when the fruit normally contained mostly black seeds
The breaking in half of the watermelon was said to look like an explosion. While the chemical, which has been utilized since the early 1980s, is thought of as safe, Director of the Vegetable Research Institute at Qingdao Academy of Agricultural Science Cui Jian stated that it is best to veer away from plant hormone chemicals because watermelons are particularly sensitive to chemicals.