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.

This was bullshit the first 2000 times it was posted to reddit and it’s still bullshit here.

Even on lemmy people still aren’t bothering to fact check things. Disappointing.

“by gender” 🫠

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.

This is horse shit

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 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.

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:)

now do a honeydew

In my family we just slap the watermelons

Where’s the part where you slap it?