How to pick up a 100% ripe watermelon

It is funny when you try to find an instruction video to help you pick up a ripe watermelon but surprisedly find even in the video they pick a not mature one, or sometimes you can not find your watermelon has 100% same ripen features with the ripen rules as instruction video.

We should realize that nature doesn’t build from a model but have regularities, so you can not recognize a ripe watermelon according to a single rule whereas to combine some other features which are called experiences.

My watermelon is baby sugar. I picked up my watermelons and find all of them are 100% ripe with so bright red pulp, I will take examples from 2 of my watermelons, from their different ripen features to conclude the regularities you can use for picking up a 100% ripe watermelon for sure.

Here is the first watermelon:

ripe

unripe

We can easily see there are two signs of ripe in this pic:

1. Tendril is totally dried.
2. On its stalk, there is no fuzz

Even everyone said when you see the tendril is dry the watermelon is ripe, but there are still some people found it is not totally ripe, so at this time, if u want to make sure it is 100% ripe, it is better to find other features to make sure.

As for the fuzz on the stalk, it is quite interesting cuz I haven’t see too many people talked about it, only heard from my uncle, he told me a little story about it:

“There are a group of children sneaking up to a watermelon field at night, they touch the stalk of watermelon, when they feel it is smooth (no fuzz) they pick up, after they back they found all watermelons are ripe.”

It is quite funny but useful, according to my observation, not every ripens watermelon’s stalk is smooth (no fuzz), but when you see there is no fuzz on the stalk, it is 100% ripe for sure.

So we open it!

Here comes the second melon:

There is an important attach point (orange part in a picture).

We could found there are two signs of ripe in this pic:

1. When the other two tendrils besides the attach point both dry, it means three tendrils are dried.
2. The only leaf on the attach point is dried (drier than the following picture).

Now open it!

Enjoy such a fresh and sweet watermelon in a pretty afternoon!

Summary:

If your watermelon is already in the ripe period and  meets with one of the following features, it is mature:

1. Start from the attach point, the three tendrils are dried.
2. There is no fuzz on the stem or the stem begins to crack.

If your watermelon’s tendril nearest is dried, and it matches one or certain following features, it can be mature:

1. The leaf on the attach point is very dried.
2. The bottom of the watermelon should resist denting.