It doesn’t matter if you’re growing it yourself, shopping at the farmer’s market, or buying the grocery store, choosing a watermelon and cutting it open to find it’s unripe or overripe is very disappointing. Here’s how to pick the perfect melon from your patch or from the store:
First things first: if you’re growing your own, refer to your planting date and your days to maturity for the variety you’re growing. This will indicate when you should start looking for signs of ripeness.
Check the Stem – When the attachment point of the stem to the watermelon itself becomes dry and brown, it’s a sign your watermelon is ripe and ready to pick. (Common advice: the curly tendril on the stem above the watermelon when the watermelon is ripe the tendril will turn brown and dry up. Not been a great way for me to know. Hit or miss).
Check the Field Spot – The belly of a ripe and ready-to-pick watermelon should be a creamy dark yellow color. This is the field spot, where the melon has been resting on the ground. The color here is important. A white is not ripe, a golden yellow one is.
Dull Rind – When the rind of your watermelon starts to look less shiny and takes on a dullness, it's getting closer to ripe. This is not one of my favorite ways to tell, but if you add that in with other signs we're talking about then you’re going to be more confident in picking the melon.
Give it a Squeeze – Ripe watermelons should still feel solid and sturdy if you give a gentle squeeze and the blossom end, the end opposite from where it’s attached at the stem, should have a little bit of give. If the stem end is still very solid, it’s likely underripe. If the melon is soft or has any give to it, it’s overripe.
Knock, Knock! – A ripe watermelon should sound hollow when you knock or thump on it. Yes, this works in the grocery or at the farmer’s market, too. If it sounds muted when you knock, it’s likely underripe. If it sounds like a solid thud, it’s likely overripe. It really should almost echo. This will take practice but, once you're good at it, it's almost fool proof.
You’re likely going to pick a few unripe melons before you get the hang of this. Start with checking the field spot and thumping and squeezing at the farmer’s market or the grocery store. Pick one you think is good and ripe, but doesn’t sound like it’s overripe, and take it home. Slice it open and see how well you did! Practice on those market or store-bought melons before you try picking yours from your garden. But, honestly, the only way to learn how to do it is to go for it. I’ve picked many an unripe watermelon in my day. If that happens to you and you like pickles, try making watermelon rind pickles! At least it won’t go totally to waste.
Your friend in the garden,
Karin
