Have a watermelon vine that sprouted on it's own. Has a huge watermelon
growing. How do i tell when it's ripe?

Thump it. They sound hollow when they get ripe.

"john doe" wrote in message
...
Have a watermelon vine that sprouted on it's own. Has a huge watermelon
growing. How do i tell when it's ripe?

Hmm- you mean tight like a drum?

"Gary Harper" wrote in message
. com...
Thump it. They sound hollow when they get ripe.

"john doe" wrote in message
...
Have a watermelon vine that sprouted on it's own. Has a huge watermelon
growing. How do i tell when it's ripe?

I never grew melons till I moved down here to Texas, where they are ripe by
July, but growing since March. They are ripe when they fall from the vine, or
the vine falls from it. Try to keep it out of direct contact with the soil, if
possible. It will also sound hollow when thumped or patted, and/or if the
blossom end is softer than the rest of the melon, or if you can smell it.


On Tue, 15 Jul 2003 08:03:08 -0500, "john doe" wrote:

Have a watermelon vine that sprouted on it's own. Has a huge watermelon
growing. How do i tell when it's ripe?

I have watermellons, lots of them, maybe half acre (I know what I am
talking about).

The advice you are receiving is well meaning, but "WAY OFF BASE"!
Sure, to a trained ear, one can thump a watermellon and tell if it is
ripe (maybe).

I just checked my patch for harvest this morning. I do my first
harvest when they are about 50% of them ripe.

The Simple "Sure-fire" never miss way to tell if a watermellon is ripe
is to look at the "curl", if it is dead (brown) the mellon is ripe.
If it is still green or greenish yellow, the mellon is not ready.

WHERE IS THE CURL? Where the mellon stem joins the vine there will
always be one or two leves and a curl that looks like a pigs tail,
this is the one you want to look at. (There are other curls
throughout the vine system- -they don't matter, just the one where the
stem joines the vile). If you wait for the mellow to fall off the
vine it is over-ripe!

Have a good day-Rogerx
On Tue, 15 Jul 2003 08:03:08 -0500, "john doe" wrote:

Have a watermelon vine that sprouted on it's own. Has a huge watermelon
growing. How do i tell when it's ripe?