Watermelons

God's Warrior · Watermelons

Watermelons

One of the great pleasures of gardening is growing your own watermelon, chilling it, and eating it on a hot summer day. Thanks to plant breeders, there are now many varieties that will mature even in northern climates.

Most varieties are ripe when the stem that attaches the melon to the vine becomes brown and crisp. Try piercing the melon skin with your fingernail. If this is easy to do, the melon is most likely ripe.

Another clue comes from melon skin color. The spot where the melon touches the ground is usually yellow when ripe, and the upper side of the skin becomes a bit more shiny.
Old-timers swore they could tell if a melon was ripe simply by giving it a sharp rap. If thumping produces a dull, hollow thud, the melon is ripe. A higher ringing sound means the fruit is still green.

If you're raising your watermelon up north, the arrival of cold weather may be the final arbiter of ripeness. Get your melons in before the first frost, cross your fingers, and cut one open. If they're not dead ripe, you can always turn them into pickles.

God's Warrior

Ways to Tell if Your Watermelon Is Ripe

Wherever you grow your watermelon, this summer you'll face the daunting task of determining its ripeness. We've heard all sorts of advice, including the fact that a ripe melon, when thumped, will feel more like a human head than a human chest.

Thump it. If the watermelon sounds hollow, it's ripe. This is difficult for less-gifted ears.

Look at the color on the top. The watermelon is ripe when there is little contrast between the stripes.

Look at the color on the bottom. A green watermelon will have a white bottom; a ripe melon will have a cream- or yellow-colored bottom.

Press on it. If the watermelon sounds like it gives a little, it's ripe.

Check the tendril. If it's half-dead, it could mean that the watermelon is nearly ripe or ripe. If the tendril is fully dead, it could mean that anthracnose or some other fungus killed the melon, or that it's ripe or overripe. If the tendril is green, you should wait to pick the melon.

Count the number of days from flowering or the number of days from planting. This works pretty well if you know the variety of watermelon and how many days it's supposed to take for that variety to ripen under normal temperature and fertilizer regimes.

Check the size. It's not necessarily true that when a watermelon is big enough, it's ready; but under good conditions, it should be normal size. If it's not, you're probably too anxious.

Crack a few. You've got a whole field of watermelons, and you can practice a little, right?

Is the vine dead or dying? Well, the watermelon is not going to get any riper, so you might as well pick it.

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Aloe
The way to tell a watermelon (or any melon) is ripe? After the critters eat half of it, then you know it is ripe.

Elena
That is the most practical advice I have every read. Thanks Aloe! I just hope they save a few slices for me..................

shazbot3
Have you guys ever seen a yellow watermelon?? I hadn't. My big Sissy brought me one a couple days ago. It looks like a normal watermelon on the outside, but the inside is yellow. We haven't cut it yet-too busy. But I'm going to take the time to cut it into little chunks today, put it in a bowl & put it in the fridge for us to munch on.

Also, have you guys ever heard of growing your melons inside a concrete block? I read about it in a magazine a couple years back. They say the melon, as it grows, will conform to the inside shape of the block, and will be so easy to slice-like a loaf of bread. The only thing is, I don't remember how they said to get it OUT of the block when it was ready to pick, lol. I would imagine you could use just about any kind of something with an inside shape of some kind. I always wanted to try it, but have never gotten around to doing it yet.

Elena
Yellow watermellons can be absolutely delicious if they are picked at the right time. Wish I had one little bite of that mellon. Interesting about forming the shape of the mellon. That could be lots of fun, couldn't it? You do it first, Shaz, and then post the pictures for us to see. LOL

This summer I tasted a seedless watermelon for the first time and it was sweeter than I thought it would be. One of our favorites is sugar baby because it is smaller and doesn't take up as much room in the refrigerator.

Carol7
There's a gentleman in our county who is 70+ and plants a large garden as a hobby every year just to give away veggies to folks. He called work one day to let us know he had free watermelons and muskmellons for us. I stopped by on my way home to get a few because I was going to buy some anyway and figured why not pay him for them instead. He showed me around his gardens - you all know how it is when fellow gardeners get together ;o) - and I made a new gardening friend as well. He insisted I take home two watermelons and they were the sweetest ones I've tasted all summer.

Elena
What a delightful old man! I bet you had a really great time talking to him. Yep, getting together with fellow gardeners is a real delight. I haven't had a really sweet watermelon all summer. I am drooling here just thiking about the one you had.

shazbot3
We had our first seedless this summer, too. It was very ripe, and so sweet it melted in our mouths Smile

Elena
Many of the purchased ones have been fertilized to death and are picked before they are ripe..... and just don't have much taste to them at all.

shazbot3
That's true. Same goes for these tomatoes LB is giving us. He grows them to sell at the Farmer's Mkt., so he has a huge field of them. They just don't taste OR smell the same as homegrown Sad

Which is not to say I'm not glad to get them. He is just giving them to us, and I will be the last to look a gift horse in the mouth. I'll shut up now, and keep filling my larders with free canned tomatoes...[/b]