Why YSK: These tips may help you pick a more ripe, juicier, sweeter watermelon.
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
Finally, Lemmy has reached peak Reddit quality shitposting.
I salute you, person.
Awesome, thank you for the info! Always learn something new on lemmy.
Where’s the part where you slap it?
That’s between you and the watermelon, leave me out of your racy play.
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>
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.
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.
“by gender” 🫠
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
The fuck is a “male” plant ovary?
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.
This is one of those things that I’ll save and then never use.
Anyone know where I can find those sweet and juicy webbed females?
Um… Florida?
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.
Fruit don’t have “genders,” this is complete bullshit
Morgan Freeman taught me to flick melons to determine the ripeness in Unleashed, and I have honed the skill to a masterful level. Get weird looks from strangers sometimes tho…
Sounds like a great way to get sick or spread sickness.
Maybe if you’re Immuno-compromised, have bad hand hygiene practices, or go around people when you’re sick.
going around licking public display foods is bad hygiene practices tbh.
You should maybe go back and read the post again you’re complaining about…
ah shit, I didn’t see the f on my small laptop monitor with border buffers for anonymity when I made that comments- whoops >.>
That’s actually pretty funny.
Never eat them, horrible watery bullshit and more effort than they’re worth.
However, a very much appreciated post because my wife loves them and if this is true, I can become the Watermelon Wizard
Thanks, possibly:)
If you do become the Watermelon Wizard, will you be getting a cape? Or what do wizard wear… a mantle?
You get two massive melons on your chest
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.
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