The One Thing You Need to Know to Pick Out a Watermelon

Find out what you need to be looking out for to pick out a good watermelon. One simple tip will guide you in picking your the best melons.

There is a lot of advice on how to pick out the right watermelon on the internet but I think there really is only one thing you really need to look for in order to be successful.

To give you some background, I worked many years in produce (at a local produce market and Whole Foods Market) and one of the most frequent asked questions was about if a watermelon was good or how to pick out a good one.

This usually came with people were tapping on the watermelons. They are looking for it to have a hollow sound.

But I started to question is this reliable?

I haven't found that to be the case. It's pretty subjective as well. Plus I think most of the time you are most likely to find watermelons that were picked too early than those that would be picked too late. I think most watermelons I would pick up in the store sounded hallow.

So what is actually more reliable?

Pick a Watermelon by the Spot

Put everything else out of your mind and just look at the spot on the watermelon. You see when watermelons are growing on the ground part of the fruit never gets touched by sunlight. This will cause a spot to form.

As the watermelon matures that spot will turn from a white color to a yellow color. More mature fruit is going to have time to develop sweetness and more flavor. And that's why you want to pick them.

Is too dark yellow bad? Honestly I have never picked out a watermelon using this method that was overripe. Picking out an under ripe watermelon is more likely than overripe.

What if the watermelon doesn't have a spot? Most do but you may come across some that don't have that obvious spot. Unless the grower is constantly turning the melons, which would be extremely time consuming, you are going to find a part on the watermelon that has an area that isn't as vivid color as the rest of the fruit. The question does it look more white or more yellowish?

What about Shape or Stripes?

I have seen charts that indicate that if a watermelon is more elongated, it won't be a good watermelon. Whether that is true or not, it's going to be variety dependent. Because you have watermelons that look like this:

Some people like to say that the stripes or webbing on the fruit will make a difference. Maybe that is true. But again that is variety dependent because you have watermelons that look like this:

No stripes on those watermelons.

For these reasons this is why I think the best thing to keep in mind and the only thing that has been reliable for me is to pick that watermelon with the darkest yellow spot.

Do Watermelons Ripen After Being Picked

Unlike peaches, watermelons don't ripen after being picked. They are as good as they are going to get. Keeping them around longer it's going to do anything for you, except increase the change they will go bad on you. Although watermelon keep quite well, lasting 3-4 weeks post harvest. Of course you don't know how long the watermelon you picked in the store has been sitting around. Generally best to enjoy them within a week.

More Posts to Read

I hope you have enjoyed this post and it has been helpful to you. Keep it simple and go with that yellow spot. Also sign up for my email list so that you can know when all the best fruits are in season and how to tell when they are ripe.

Here are some other blog posts about melons that you should check out:

• How are Honeyrock Melons Different from Cantaloupe
• What is a Sugar Kiss Melon?

Here are some other blogs post about fruit being ripe:

• How to Tell if a Red Banana is Ripe
• How to Tell if a Pomegranate is Ripe
• How to Tell if a Pear is Ripe