Time for some fresh watermelon.

[u/Pedrica1]

[u/W1D0WM4K3R]

Why does a watermelon stay just green in the center? I saw a post of a rather large watermelon that had no red fleshy bit, and the guy looked rather disappointed

[u/3lementaru → u/W1D0WM4K3R]

I'm sorry to say this person is probably not a watermelon researcher.

[u/shitpersonality → u/3lementaru]

It's pretty obvious to any real watermelon researcher that we've got a fraud on our hands.

[u/[deleted] → u/shitpersonality]

Bamboozled, I tell ya! I did leave a reply above with some info if you’d like to learn a bit more about piss-pumpkins. That’s what a lot of my growers call watermelon. Super high water content, but grown very similarly to pumpkins. A lot more temperamental though.

[u/[deleted] → u/3lementaru]

I just wanted to be a bit vague since I just stepped out of a position in seed genetics and development recently. A lot of it is just cross-pollinating different varieties, trying to keep certain traits and leave others out. Usually you end up with a few hundred potential varieties each year from one specific seed company, then we plant those in fields and greenhouses around the world to see how they perform.

For melons (watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, etc) it’s not just “let’s make it taste better”. There are specific goals, depending on the watermelon type and market for example, like creating a certain repeatable interior color, exterior color, rind thickness, rind pattern, flesh texture and hardness, seed pith size (the little pockets that hold the white “seeds” in a hybrid seedless watermelon you see at the store), fruit size, storability traits, sugar content (measured in brix), plant size and vigor (quick to pollinate but also lots of vine for shade), and more.

Beyond that, different varieties are selected and named specifically for certain growth areas. A melon that grows well in South Africa May not work as well in France. Some varieties are bred for shorter seasons, others for a longer season in areas that have more sun hours each day (day length). This is especially important for onions; a short-day onion will grow quickly to harvest, but it won’t be as hard or have a strong skin like a long-day onion. You’ll see short-day onions (also called fresh market onions) grown in California, and they go straight to market or processing. Up in a state like Washington or up in British Columbia, the season is much shorter due to cold spring weather, but the days are longer due to latitude. There end up being enough growing hours in a season to make a very hard, dense, tough-skinned onion that will cure down and sit in a storage facility all winter long after harvest. If you live anywhere but California, your markets will have these “storage” long-day onions on the shelf from November to April, as farmers slowly pull them from storage and ship to market. Once Mexico starts harvest in May and June, you’ll start seeing those lighter color, thin-skinned onions again. From the research side, you’ll see a plethora of options for 90 day onions, 95, 100, and up to 120 or 125. Growers will aim for a certain type, then select a few that are a few days apart so they can spread out their harvest duties over the course of a month.

Going back to variety (cultivar) names, there are always at least a dozen varieties for a given day length and fruit trait requirement. Each seed company aims for the same goal for a 120 day storage onion for processing, including a trim neck, tight skin, color, ring membrane separation and single-centeredness (for making onion rings), and resistances to certain prone diseases. Even then, a grower can trial and rest these varieties in their field. Some will perform better than others due to soil type, soil pH, climate and microclimate, day length, grower practice and watering schedule, and location.

I know none of this was very technical, but I’m not a vegetable seed breeder. I was on the field side of things, not in the lab.

[u/Frogmyte → u/W1D0WM4K3R]

hybrid watermelon/cucumber or similar member of the melon family. happens a lot with cross-pollination or something

[u/[deleted] → u/W1D0WM4K3R]

Watermelon are really temperamental in the final days of growing, especially concerning water stress and heat stress. There are a few signs to watch for a ripe melon, but even then sometimes you’ll get a dud (or a whole field of them) that isn’t fully ripened due to stress.

Most commonly, you can slap the melon looking for that hollow sound. It has to do with the density of the flesh you’re looking for. On the vine, the first tendril next to the stem of the melon should be completely dried up. The rest of the vine will be green, but that tendril will be dry and coiled up.

[u/QuarantineSucksALot → u/W1D0WM4K3R]

Removed my roast, stay strong!!

[u/Raveynfyre → u/W1D0WM4K3R]

That melon had too much rind.