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
Also the webbing would vary between varieties.
Also I doubt there’s much variation in “ground spot” color.
This was bullshit the first 2000 times it was posted to reddit and it’s still bullshit here.
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.
Show us on the watermelon where the internet hurt you
<shows pale, tasteless spot>
Even on lemmy people still aren’t bothering to fact check things. Disappointing.
Fruit don’t have “genders,” this is complete bullshit
The fuck is a “male” plant ovary?
In my family we just slap the watermelons
Don’t be melon dramatic
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.
Sus
😳
