Title: When Bad Watermelons Explode on Good People | HowStuffWorks
Headings: When Bad Watermelons Explode on Good People
When Bad Watermelons Explode on Good People
Walter Reeves Weighs In
The Exploding Watermelon Gene
Now That's Anxiety Inducing
Exploding Watermelon
How many rubber bands does it take to explode a watermelon?
What would make a watermelon explode?
Can a watermelon randomly explode?
What happens when a watermelon explodes?
Why do watermelons explode with rubber bands?

Content: Watermelon splitting or "exploding" can also be caused by the explosive rind gene which is found in many heirloom varieties. Dr. Penelope Perkins-Veazie, a plant physiologist and professor of horticulture at North Carolina State University (NCSU), says in an email that the explosive rind gene was identified back in 1937. Basically it causes the fruit rind to burst or split when cut. "So a little bump will pop the rind open and the turgor pressure in the fruit pushes flesh far and wide," says Perkins-Veazie. " Triploid [or seedless] watermelons require diploid [seeded] pollinators, but usually growers don't want a lot of large seeded watermelons to harvest. So incorporating the explosive rind gene into the small fruited, seedy pollinator fruit means they can be stepped on, destroyed, but fruit are small enough (usually palm sized) so they won't squirt all over the seedless fruit." Mark Twain once proclaimed the watermelon, "the chief of this world's luxuries, king by the grace of God over all the fruits of the earth. When one has tasted it, he knows what the angels eat." Mark Twain must never have encountered what Walter Reeves describes as the "ooey-gooey, slimy, yucky puddle of crapola" left behind by a catastrophic watermelon rind failure. Otherwise, Twain's proclamation might have begun with, "What in tarnation?"