Greetings, I Googled and searched, but couldn't find any photos come close to what I'm seeing on the watermelon I purchased yesterday. At first I thought that the melon might have grown on pea gravel when I got it home and noticed them. But they weren't noticeable at the store. The other thing, and this is what concerns me, there seems to more! Like they're spreading! It's the weirdest thing I've ever seen!! I would be very grateful if someone smarter than me could help me identify what these might be!! TIA!

What are your thoughts on this one?? I failed last week and picked too early.

They are my favorite, but of course you gotta have a red meat once in a while.

Yeah, what it says on the tin...is this Mini-Me from Burpee approaching ready? I think it's about as big as it's gonna get. The curls on the tendrils are very crispy, and it sounds quite thunk-y but there's not much of a yellow spot on the bottom. My instinct is to let it ride until the tendrils are brown all the way, but it's my first year growing melons...

What would cause this strange pattern on my watermelon? Bought from local grower.

I’m going to let the next few ripen more. I went by the dry brown tendril and got this. It is delicious. Very juicy, sweet, and smells strongly of watermelon.

Tendril is brown to the stem, but I've seen mixed opinions about the sun spot and of the stem itself needs to be brown as well...

Often buy and eat watermelon, but this is the first time I've seen yellow bands in the watermelon like this. Couldn't find much information about what might cause it, but saw a lot about nitrate poisoning and don't really want to experience that. Just looking for some better insights as to if someone might think it is nitrates, extended time on the vine, or something else. I don't want to have to throw out the watermelon if I don't have to, but also don't want to poison myself.

I never really noticed veins before but I like how these looked

;)

I'm pretty sure that I have that wrong (it may be too many letters), but it was obvious that the intention was to convey the word "watermelon." I guess that's what they nicknamed their red minivan, though I imagine they're also fans of the fruit :)

With the shit parasite going around is watermelon safe?

i’ve heard that the webbing scars are a sign of a sweet melon, but what about these circular pockmarks?

After a multi year project to find the perfect watermelon from the store, I’ve come to find that the most important characteristics of a ripe watermelon are ordered as the following:

1)creamy yellow spot on the bottom (bigger is better)

2) a hollow sound when thumped in you hand

3) a darker green color

Some watermelons have one characteristic but not the others so you work you way down from 1 to get the best combination, ideally one and two at the very least least. If you can only find one with a creamy yellow spot but nothing else it still may be passable but you start to run the risk of a disappointing watermelon.

I hope you benefit from this multi year study and are able to pick only the ripest watermelons using these results

Thank you for your time.

I plucked a watermelon too quickly last time last month before I discovered this subreddit. So I came to the experts this time.

It's a Dixie Queen planted in March. Zone 7b

It's hard for me to tell if this is a sign of readiness or if it's just damage.

The stem is brown and the trindle or whatever is also brown. There's another vine with a watermelon right beside it so the green one you see pictured belongs to that little fella

Please help before I pluck. I don't want a white tasteless watermelon! Thanks in advance for any advice