When it comes to gardening there is a surplus of hacks and tips you can follow to try and maximize your yields and keep your plants healthy.
The only problem is knowing which of those hacks actually work, but that’s where the internet comes in.
We’ve got a tip for telling if your watermelon is ripe that will blow your mind.
You’re not looking for yellow spots.
With this tip, you can tell when they’re ready every time.
Watermelon is one of those fruits that almost everyone loves to eat, which is why many people grow delicious green melons every year in their personal gardens.
View this post on Instagram
They’re easy to grow, only becoming difficult when it’s time to try and figure out if they’re ready.
What to do?
So which tips on telling if your watermelon is ready to pick actually work?
Let’s investigate a couple of different methods before we show you our full-proof hack that works every time.
View this post on Instagram
The thump test.
One way many people like to try and tell if their watermelons are ready is the thump test.
The thump test is when you simply knock/thump on the watermelon and listen for the sound it makes.
In theory, if it makes a clink it’s not ready, but if it thuds, it’s ready to go.
But that’s not the tip.
The problem with this test, some people are hard of hearing and we all hear different sounds depending on which frequency our ears pick up.
The scratch and sniff method
The next method we’re going to explore is the scratch and sniff method. This method is pretty self-explanatory, you literally just scratch the watermelon and sniff it.
Apparently, if it smells like a watermelon, it’s ready.
But this still isn’t the tip.
View this post on Instagram
There are a few problems with this method. First of all, what do you do if your nose is clogged or you have chronic sinus problems that inhibit your smell senses?
Second, I feel like all of my watermelons smell like watermelons, even babies.
View this post on Instagram
The pickup method
The last method we’ll explore before showing you our full-proof hack is the pickup method.
This one is also pretty self-explanatory, you literally pick up the watermelon and look on the underside, if it’s got a yellow spot on the bottom it’s supposedly ready.
The big flaw with this one, watermelons are super heavy so if you have a lot of them growing this one can be super rough on the back.
With those three methods out of the way, it’s time to learn our full-proof hack for telling when your watermelons are ripe.
It’s all in the tendril
You just have to look for the tendril and make sure it’s brown, not green
Instead of knocking on your watermelons, scratching and sniffing, or looking at the bottom of every single one like a crazy person, you just have to find the tendril on the vine and make sure it’s dead and brown.
Here’s what a tendril is:
“a slender threadlike appendage of a climbing plant, often growing in a spiral form, that stretches out and twines around any suitable support.” – Oxford Languages
Every single watermelon has its own tendril on the opposite side of the vine it’s growing on.
When that tendril is brown and dead, your watermelon is ripe and ready to eat.
See how this amazing hack works in real time in the video below!
To learn how to grow watermelons in containers, check out this helpful article.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
