My first watermelon! So close! How many more days do you think I should have waited?
By the way, the pink part was still good to eat. Flavorful, somewhat sweet, and super juicy. I can’t wait to taste the full ripe one next!
Looks like my first watermelons! So close keep at it.
ItSmellsLikeCowsHere
Id say if its tasty and you get 5 seeds from it you’re successful
kodakakitty
Mostly skin😂 Growing vegetables are great! Yes, I grow some funky tomatoes too!
DomiJoey12
That’s not fruit…that’s a seed bearer…use those seeds to plant more to yield fruit…
kabula_lampur
Great for harvesting seeds from, so success there.
erwellian
I give mine a nice rap with my finger joint pretty frequently and when they’re ripe you can hear the difference in sound coming from the watermelon
SlowBro_Yo
Look at the curl next to where the stem meets the vine. It will be brown when ripe. The part resting against the ground will also be a golden yellow color.
Upset_Ad2359
Put it back in the oven 😀
Weezy_F_Bunny
Watermelon’t
Asangkt358
Oh, that’s kind of a bummer. OP, would you mind sharing your general location and how much you watered it throughout the summer?
I ask because I’ve been thinking about getting into melons and am curious as to just how difficult it is. My current understanding is that you need hot weather and frequent watering to make them grow well, but, never having done it myself, I’m super curious about your experience.
stoneddroneburner
Wait for the yellow belly to harvest
RedleyLamar
You need to practice yer thumpin:
To perform the watermelon thump test, firmly tap the melon with your knuckles. A ripe watermelon will produce a deep, hollow sound, similar to a bongo drum, and you should feel a vibration resonate through your hand. An unripe watermelon will have a sharp, metallic “ping,” while an overripe one will sound dull or like a flat thud
pretentiousgoofball
Great first try! You can try pickling the rind if you want to get more out of it!
Cold-Question7504
It’s time for pickled watermelon rind… 😉
PysceanWarrior
Doesn’t look ripe yet. But beautiful
oops17893
It’s not particularly close. Probably still at least a week away, maybe more depending on your climate.
A few tips, especially if you have a whole patch and not just a couple of plants.
1) There is no definitive way to know if it’s ripe. I saw someone mention the curly part by the stem, and that can be helpful. You at least want that one by the stem to be completely dry, but it’s still not a guarantee. If more of the curly parts further away from the stem are dry (i believe it’s called a tendril) thats even better, but you have to be careful that it’s not too ripe and become mushy. Ive seen them ripe at 1 tendril half dry up to 3 tendrils dry before it was ripe.
2) Sound and feel can be helpful, but are far from perfect. The sound changes depending on the water content inside and the size of the melon. A larger melon will typically have a deeper sound than a smaller one , and water content doesn’t necessarily translate to ripeness.
3) the real key is finding a melon in your patch that is ripe and paying attention to the characteristics. Like the sound when you tap on it, or how dry the tendrils are. The first one is the hardest because you dont have a baseline but it gets easier to figure out the rest of the patch once you figure out what a ripe one looks like and sounds like. I also like to look for separation in the stripes.
4) the first ones to get ripe in the patch tend to be the ones closest to the center of the plant. Also the bigger melons are also generally ripe before the smaller ones. Note that if your patch was planted at the same time, the majority of the melons will get ripe at the same time. It’s different than a cantaloupe or other melons where a few get ripe every day or every 2 days. It’s more like all the melons around the center will get ripe around the same time and then the ones towards the end of the vines will get ripe a week or two weeks or so later at the same time.
5) If you think they are close to ripe, cut the water ahead of harvesting. At least 24 hours before, maybe more depending on the climate. I grew up in the desert where we watered the plants pretty much every day, so we would stop watering maybe 1 or 2 days before harvesting. Might be different if you are in wetter climates, I’m not sure. It helps them finish ripening and not be so watery which concentrates the flavor and sweetness.
TLDR; There is no definitive way to tell when it’s ripe because it depends on a lot of factors like variety, climate, time of year, size, etc. The best thing to do is find one that is ripe, pay attention to the characteristics, and then go through your patch to find all the others like it so they don’t sit in the field too long and get too ripe and mushy. This can be hard to do if you only have a couple of plants but it’s the most consistent way to my knowledge.
Source: I grew up on a watermelon farm
drnoonee
If you wait until the nearest two sets of tendrils have dried up this is a good sign that the watermelon is ripe.
socalquestioner
Gotta wait wayyyyy longer than you think. My first two this summer were like that.
CinLeeCim
Well that’s a disappointment. Must find out why. 😏
96987
When I was younger, my parents had 5 acres that was dedicated to melons. Needless to say, but I’ve picked my fair share of melons.
There were 3 things we would do to determine if the melon was ripe:
First was the thump test. Others here have described it, but you are looking for that deep hollow sound.
Second was the dry straw test (like hay or a broom straw). Lay a piece of straw across the melon (perpendicular), and it will spin longways on a ripe melon.
Third was to plug it. Just put the plug back in place if it is unripe.
21 Comments
Looks like my first watermelons! So close keep at it.
Id say if its tasty and you get 5 seeds from it you’re successful
Mostly skin😂 Growing vegetables are great! Yes, I grow some funky tomatoes too!
That’s not fruit…that’s a seed bearer…use those seeds to plant more to yield fruit…
Great for harvesting seeds from, so success there.
I give mine a nice rap with my finger joint pretty frequently and when they’re ripe you can hear the difference in sound coming from the watermelon
Look at the curl next to where the stem meets the vine. It will be brown when ripe. The part resting against the ground will also be a golden yellow color.
Put it back in the oven 😀
Watermelon’t
Oh, that’s kind of a bummer. OP, would you mind sharing your general location and how much you watered it throughout the summer?
I ask because I’ve been thinking about getting into melons and am curious as to just how difficult it is. My current understanding is that you need hot weather and frequent watering to make them grow well, but, never having done it myself, I’m super curious about your experience.
Wait for the yellow belly to harvest
You need to practice yer thumpin:
To perform the watermelon thump test, firmly tap the melon with your knuckles. A ripe watermelon will produce a deep, hollow sound, similar to a bongo drum, and you should feel a vibration resonate through your hand. An unripe watermelon will have a sharp, metallic “ping,” while an overripe one will sound dull or like a flat thud
Great first try! You can try pickling the rind if you want to get more out of it!
It’s time for pickled watermelon rind… 😉
Doesn’t look ripe yet. But beautiful
It’s not particularly close. Probably still at least a week away, maybe more depending on your climate.
A few tips, especially if you have a whole patch and not just a couple of plants.
1) There is no definitive way to know if it’s ripe. I saw someone mention the curly part by the stem, and that can be helpful. You at least want that one by the stem to be completely dry, but it’s still not a guarantee. If more of the curly parts further away from the stem are dry (i believe it’s called a tendril) thats even better, but you have to be careful that it’s not too ripe and become mushy. Ive seen them ripe at 1 tendril half dry up to 3 tendrils dry before it was ripe.
2) Sound and feel can be helpful, but are far from perfect. The sound changes depending on the water content inside and the size of the melon. A larger melon will typically have a deeper sound than a smaller one , and water content doesn’t necessarily translate to ripeness.
3) the real key is finding a melon in your patch that is ripe and paying attention to the characteristics. Like the sound when you tap on it, or how dry the tendrils are. The first one is the hardest because you dont have a baseline but it gets easier to figure out the rest of the patch once you figure out what a ripe one looks like and sounds like. I also like to look for separation in the stripes.
4) the first ones to get ripe in the patch tend to be the ones closest to the center of the plant. Also the bigger melons are also generally ripe before the smaller ones. Note that if your patch was planted at the same time, the majority of the melons will get ripe at the same time. It’s different than a cantaloupe or other melons where a few get ripe every day or every 2 days. It’s more like all the melons around the center will get ripe around the same time and then the ones towards the end of the vines will get ripe a week or two weeks or so later at the same time.
5) If you think they are close to ripe, cut the water ahead of harvesting. At least 24 hours before, maybe more depending on the climate. I grew up in the desert where we watered the plants pretty much every day, so we would stop watering maybe 1 or 2 days before harvesting. Might be different if you are in wetter climates, I’m not sure. It helps them finish ripening and not be so watery which concentrates the flavor and sweetness.
TLDR; There is no definitive way to tell when it’s ripe because it depends on a lot of factors like variety, climate, time of year, size, etc. The best thing to do is find one that is ripe, pay attention to the characteristics, and then go through your patch to find all the others like it so they don’t sit in the field too long and get too ripe and mushy. This can be hard to do if you only have a couple of plants but it’s the most consistent way to my knowledge.
Source: I grew up on a watermelon farm
If you wait until the nearest two sets of tendrils have dried up this is a good sign that the watermelon is ripe.
Gotta wait wayyyyy longer than you think. My first two this summer were like that.
Well that’s a disappointment. Must find out why. 😏
When I was younger, my parents had 5 acres that was dedicated to melons. Needless to say, but I’ve picked my fair share of melons.
There were 3 things we would do to determine if the melon was ripe:
First was the thump test. Others here have described it, but you are looking for that deep hollow sound.
Second was the dry straw test (like hay or a broom straw). Lay a piece of straw across the melon (perpendicular), and it will spin longways on a ripe melon.
Third was to plug it. Just put the plug back in place if it is unripe.
Leave watermelons for the south