how do you know when your watermelon is readt to be picked from the garden?
Answers:
There are several sure-fire signs. First, it should be the mature size for that particular type of watermelon. They come in size from mini-melons to gigantic, so your melon should be the right size for whatever variety it is supposed to be. Second, the stem will be drying up where it attaches to the melon. If the stem is still thick and green and juicy, the melon isn't ripe yet. Third, when you gently lift the melon and look at the bottom of it, there should be an area that's yellowish or paler in color that the rest of the melon. Some people actually cut a little bitty sample out of the melon and then replace the "plug" if it isn't completely ripe, but that's always seemed to me like an invitation to insects and critters. As long as you check the size, stem, and color of the bottom, you should be able to tell with great accuracy whether the melon is ripe or not.
Other answers:
smell it. Usually the better it smells, the better it tastes
smell it. Usually the better it smells, the better it tastes
well at my job they shake them first and if they hear the water inside of it shaking they say its not ready.
When it says pick me, pick me.
Actually when you slap it, it sounds hollow!
My grandma told me you knock on it...if you hear nothing then it's yours for the eating!!
Actually, my father in law raises watermelons and has for 30-40 years. He says thumping a melon tells you nothing. Watermelons tend to pick themselves if you watch them. The stem right at the melon will begin to turn brown (specs at first) and then it will start to curl like a pigs tail because the melon is actually rolling trying to detach itself to complete its life cycle.
There are conflicting opinions regarding a watermelon's density as a judge of ripeness. The gal who works at my local farm market insists that a watermelon should be thumped and listened to for a hollow sound(1), yet a very reliable nutritional source on the web states that a ripe one "is heavy for its size"(2). However, enough technological research and development has gone into this question, which coroborrates that the hollow sound can in fact be a good ripeness indicator(3), but only when that sound is not detected too late; before overripeness occurs(4).
Alternatively you can use a combination of four other ripeness indicators as follows(4):
"...light green, curly tendrils on the stem near the point of attachment of the melon usually turn brown and dry; the surface color of the fruit turns dull; the skin becomes resistant to penetration by the thumbnail and is rough to the touch; and the bottom of the melon (where it lies on the soil) turns from light green to a yellowish color."
Although some varieties of watermellons can generally grow larger than other varieties, the size of a fruit is *not* an indicator of ripeness. It is the same with tomatoes; the larger one can taste identicle to the smaller one on the same vine. The maximum size of the fruit of your particular crop is related to sun, temperatures, soil, water, and care/maintenance.
However, unlike tomatoes, all species of mellons ripen from the center outwards toward the rind. At some point in time the size of the fruit stops increasing, but the sweet fraction of the flesh continues to increase, as the (outer) waste fraction of the fruit diminishes. And simultaneously the sweetness of the watermellon will reach a maximum, and further ripening is not additional sweetness, but additional fraction of flesh at that same level of sweetness. Ideally the watermellon should be picked when it contains the maximum volume of sweet flesh before its flavor becomes overripe.
Your neighbor's crop of same variety of watermellon could possibly be sweeter than your crop. You determine what your particular crop's maximum potential sweetness is after picking a few of them within the ballpark period of ripeness. Then with later pickings you can focus on ripening them for maximum fraction of ripe flesh.
On the vine coming from the melon there is a "pig tail" (long curly tail) next to the melon and one just up from it. When both of those pig tails are brown and dead the watermelon is ready to pick and eat. There is no way to knock on it and tell. Take it from me, I have 8000 watermelon plants out. Also, did you know you can dissolve Epsom Salts in water and fertilize weekly and the salts will make the watermelon sweeter.