Last May, the director of the vegetable research institute at the Qingdao Academy of Agricultural Science in Qingdao, China, told the media that the Chinese government does not encourage farmers to use plant hormones on watermelons because watermelons “are very sensitive.”

The Chinese have learned about watermelons in a hurry lately because watermelons all over the Chinese countryside have been exploding “like land mines.” The British media reported that Chinese watermelon fields were “erupting by the acre,” with melons blasting apart one by one. These reports, of course, intrigued the West. The U.S. National Watermelon Association reacted quickly and soberly. “I have never seen this phenomenon,” its executive director said.

But getting accurate information about fruit in China is not easy.

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