Why YSK: These tips may help you pick a more ripe, juicier, sweeter watermelon.

  • Brad Ganley@toad.work
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    212
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    This is all good info except for the gender thing. The round/long difference is just a growth habit. Watermelon plants (and other cucurbits like squash, zucchini, cantaloupe, etc) produce male and female flowers. Only the female flowers produce fruit and must be pollinated by a male flower to do so.

  • Fisk400@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    91
    arrow-down
    7
    ·
    1 year ago

    This was bullshit the first 2000 times it was posted to reddit and it’s still bullshit here.

  • thekinghaslost@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    68
    ·
    1 year ago

    Nah, I’m just going to continue doing what I’ve always done: tapping the watermelon to hear the sound and pretend that I know what I’m doing.

  • Chriszz@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    64
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Even on lemmy people still aren’t bothering to fact check things. Disappointing.

  • Furbag@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    57
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’ll just remember “pick the most fucked up looking melon with patchy orange spots and ugly crisscross webbing”. It’s probably not going to make the photo reel but it’ll taste good.

  • Stillhart@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    57
    ·
    1 year ago

    I spent a season working in a packing house for watermelons. They’d come in by the crateload and we were allowed to just grab one to eat any time we wanted.

    The trick I was taught, and which proved to be pretty reliable over the course of the season, was to feel the veins. (This is possibly what’s being described as webbing here?) Watermelons aren’t smooth, they have wide “veins” running top to bottom and you can feel them if you put your hand flat on the side of the melon. The bigger/poofier/wider the veins, the more ripe is it.

  • Margot Robbie@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    31
    ·
    1 year ago

    None of these visual methods are reliable as these things differ greatly amongst melon varieties. The easiest way is just to knock on the watermelon like you would a door, if it sounds hollow on the inside, then it’s ripe.

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        I dont know about watermelons but there are a plethora of plants that can not produce fruit without being pollinated by another plant. Also if you ever self pollinate a plant you’ll have to recognize the 2 different parts. Is it just the calling them male/female that bothers you? Edit: I guess I should say plants/flowers can have a sex, fruits I don’t think would. They are just seed dispersers I believe.

        • mvirts@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Hmm I’m no plant expert, so maybe I’m wrong about this but I thought fruit always grows after pollen moves to an egg like part of the flower/plant, so the ‘sex’ of the fruit is always a combined pollen+egg like cell. This cell develops into a seed while the surrounding plant grows the fruit for various reasons. Maybe there is a heterozygous genetic trait in some plants where we could label the individual as sex A or B, but I thought self pollinating plants were basically both sexes at the same time??? Idk… Maybe I should do some googling but heck the fediverse needs content :P

          • Kethal@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            The scientific definition of “fruit” is the ripened ovary of a flowering plant. This differs from the normal usage so some things not commonly considered fruit, such as tomatoes and the pods of soybeans, are fruits by this definition. Flowering plants (not all plants have flowers) have male and female anatomical structures. Many species have both structures in one flower. Some species have flowers that contains either male or female structures. These flowers can either be on the same plant (monoecious), like watermelon and corn, or on different plants (diecious), like papaya. The ovary, what will become the fruit, is a female anatomical structure, and it makes no sense to talk about a male fruit for any type of flower. Male flowers produce pollen, which fertilizes the embryo in an ovary, but male flowers themselves don’t produce fruit.

  • cshock@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    24
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Why the green arrow for the “wrong” one, and the red arrow for the “right” one?

    3 of the 4 items (gender doesn’t matter, variety does) are generally correct.
    Source: I’m a former watermelon “cutter” (the guy that goes out in the field first thing in the morning and cuts the good melons off the vine, and turns them belly side up so it’s obvious to the field workers which melons to load up)

    Also, with the whole thumping thing, most people just look silly doing as they don’t know what they’re doing. If you do thump, ones that have a higher pitched ping are still green, and that have a really dull/flat thud are over-ripe/too gritty/sugary. Also, weight should feel right, too light and it’s overripe/rotten.

    In general, any melon sold at the store should be good, just take one and stop trying to be a hero. At least the farmers I dealt with are pretty ethical, they aren’t purposely shipping bad melons. It just takes experience of seeing/handling melons for a while to get the “picking one” correct. Most store I know of have a satisfaction guarantee anyway, take pictures if it’s bad and when you go back get a refund if you’re that concerned with it.

    • boothin@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      I believe in China red/green meaning is reversed for things like this, where red means positive/good and green means negative/bad

    • DogMuffins
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      I don’t tap, I just smell them. Am I being a dumbass?

      I don’t smell half a dozen and try to select the best, rather - if they don’t smell sweet ill probably get something else and leave the watermelon for another day.

  • irkli@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    23
    ·
    1 year ago

    On oranges, damage to the fruit (insect bites, cuts, etc) often cause the fruit to be sweeter in the area of the damage. So ugly fruit is often tastier.

    Americans especially are sold shiny pretty consistent fruit. Ripe fruit is browning, wrinkled, lots of flaws. After a while you’ll see some of those “flaws” as signs of tasty fruit.

    • SadTrain@lemmy.fmhy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      20
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’m a produce manager for a grocery chain in the SE US. I tell people ALL of the time to pick out the ugliest cantaloupe/honeydew because it’s typically going to be the sweetest/most ripe.

      You’ll have people shaking, rolling, knocking on melons trying to find “the good ones”. It’s pretty funny to watch people make their selections.