Why YSK: These tips may help you pick a more ripe, juicier, sweeter watermelon.
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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.
Was about to post this. There is a fact check here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2022/04/26/fact-check-false-claim-male-and-female-watermelons/7366708001/ No such thing as male or female watermelons.
So if I’m getting the info correct: the uglier the melon, the better it will taste
Probably because beautiful melons had it easy, while the ugly melons had to work on their personality and talent to make up for the shunning they got from the melon community. Big Melon always presents attractive melons on media, making it harder for ugly melons.
#UglyMelonsTasteBetter
its whats inside that matters… you dont eat the rind
well… you dont
Finally some solid Science ! The Psychology of Melons on death-row are not getting enough attention. Thank you Sir !
Finally, Lemmy has reached peak Reddit quality shitposting.
I salute you, person.
Awesome, thank you for the info! Always learn something new on lemmy.
Also the webbing would vary between varieties.
Also I doubt there’s much variation in “ground spot” color.
yeah but some varieties should be naturally sweeter than others.
Great, now I wont have to be sexist against the watermelons
This was bullshit the first 2000 times it was posted to reddit and it’s still bullshit here.
Show us on the watermelon where the internet hurt you
<shows pale, tasteless spot>
I bet it was a pumpkin
I just roll my eyes at it now.
FYI there is no reliable way to tell if a watermelon is ripe after it is harvested. The most reliable indicator is the tendril on the node the peduncle is attached to. When it is fully dry, the fruit is ready.
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.
Even on lemmy people still aren’t bothering to fact check things. Disappointing.
Okay how can I tell which watermelon 🍉 is best for insertion ???
The markets where I buy are confident enough in their product that they cut the one you want to taste before you buy. I’ve never found a more reliable method than that.
sir this is a wal-mart
Sir, this is the Planet of the Grapes wine store.
Tender to touch but not full of maggots
Trick question! They’re all perfect for this 🥰
You see a female water melon has ovaries while the male melons have spikes
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.
Tell me more about your veiny melons.
As it turns out my wife’s melons haven’t ripened even after dozens of years. : /
😳
Sus
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.
The ugly ones usually taste better, just check that the ugliness isn’t caused by molds
in general I find this to be true with most fruits, the uglier the better. Those pretty shiny apples are shit.
The ones with worms are sweeter cause worms can choose better than humans.
Yep. Extra protein too
Ugliness is correlated with age, and ripeness is correlated with age, so ugliness and ripeness would at the very least be spuriously correlated.
Oddly, I can tell exactly how an apple will taste just by touching it. Shiny smooth apples are usually soft/mushy and have no taste. You want a rough texture with a little grip.
This is horse shit
Where’s the part where you slap it?
That’s between you and the watermelon, leave me out of your racy play.
In my family we just slap the watermelons
Don’t be melon dramatic
Good sound, good taste. - a Chinese proverb
Idk man you do you, but I prefer eating them
What did they do to your family?
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.
I thought I was the only the weirdo that stands there spanking the watermelons, trying to find the one that sounds like a Voit dodgeball.
Knock they said, stop spanking fruits, or don’t, whatever makes you happy haha
What does hollow sound like? High pitch or low pitch?
Hard to describe, but it should sound more like you are knocking on an empty jug instead of a jug filled with water.
I think a higher pitch then.
What kind of screaming melons do you possess
This I know to be the only reliable method. Also after knocking if you squeeze it it should make a sound as something rigid starting to crack not as being rubbery/ elastic.
Not sure about pitch, but it should sound more like you are knocking on a drum instead of a water tank, that’s the best way I can describe it.
The fuck is a “male” plant ovary?
When I see nonsense like this, I then distrust the entire YSK.
Testicles(!)
Yaaa the whole gendered fruit thing I will never understand
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.
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
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.
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.
I believe in China red/green meaning is reversed for things like this, where red means positive/good and green means negative/bad
Always appreciate hearing from someone with experience!
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.
Those are Rotten Tomatoes-style arrows. /s
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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.
This infographic brought to you by someone selling gnarly watermelons.
