Anyone's gardens getting right?

Nah. Once you compare a couple known unripe ones to ripe ones you get the "feel" for it. Like anything else a little experience makes a world of difference. It's a lot easier to tell on the vine than at the store though that's for sure. Like I said on the vine it's all about the tendril. If it's dried up the melon is ready. Just this rain is not good for em. Lots of rain makes the melons grow faster than the sugar can form causing white hearts, end rot, and bursting in growing melons and disperses the sugars in mature melons making them much less sweet. Ideally you want about 5-7 days of no rain before harvesting a melon to be as sweet as they can be

 

The ones at the store don't have tendrils. They are smooth. I did buy one of those small round seedless melons last year and it was perfect. But all of the melons in the bin looked exactly the same and were the same size.

 

Yep. It's easier on the vine. But with this rain I might have to resort to buying a few myself if these dont sweetin up

 

That is some good info. Jval, yours too. How did you learn about no rain = higher sugar content and all that other stuff?

 

So that makes sense. Besides the store bought everything that tastes like shit the methods used to expedite the growing process ruins the natural taste. Good to know.

 

Plus, for example, tomatoes are best ripened on the vine - so I am told cause I grow them but don't eat them. If growers picked them ripe off the vine, by the time they were trucked, put out, bought and left in fridge, etc. they would be rotting. That's why tomatoes are picked green. By the time they hit the store they are ripe. At least that is what I've been told. I don't know for sure.

 

Just info passed down through 5 generations growing melons on this hill then just observation....drier weather gives sweeter watermelons. They essentially just get watered down when they are grown is all it is or they grow to fast and don't make enough sugar to keep up